Mass Effect: Race Against Time
by Jou Jou the Magnificent
Summary: John Shepard, raised as an orphan on the planet Earth, war hero of the Skyllian Blitz, is one of the most promising soldiers in the Systems Alliance military. Through unforeseen events he's thrown into a war he has to seemingly fight alone. See the story of Mass Effect in a new light, starting from the very beginning of Commander Shepard's life as an orphaned child. Shepard X Tali.
1. Chapter 0: Prologue

**Mass Effect: Race Against Time**

**Prologue**

**"Do not be afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." – William Shakespeare**

A lightning struck across the stormy sky, hitting the wavy ocean. The barren world of 2181 Desponia was constantly hit by hurricane sized storms. Almost the entire planet was covered in water, and in the dark depths of those endless waters, lied something no person had ever known of. The recently found planet was apparently a favored site of many shipwrecks, some of them being as old as the lost Prothean Empire.

The hard waves banged against a recently downed cargo ship, making it rock violently in the storm. Most of the crew had been killed in the crash, and the rest of them had died of starvation.

Several kilometers below the surface, a massive and bulky figure rose slowly from a dark cave. The creature glided in the water like a squid, not being worried about predators of any kind. No, this creature was at the top of the food chain, and not only was it strong, it was intelligent. Unbeknownst to all the civilizations and governments in the modern day Milky Way Galaxy, a flock of creatures almost as old as the universe itself, resided in the dark depths of an ocean, silently overlooking the matters of the galaxy, for millions of years.

The lone creature let its voice heard across the deep blue sea, scaring any and all smaller animals away. The voice it spoke in was metallic, and extremely low pitched, giving it even more of an intimidating impression.

"50 000 years have passed, the extinction will begin soon again." The creature spoke, bringing fear and anxiety to any who'd hear it. Beside the creature, rose another one.

"The cycle continues, as always, the species of this cycle are not prepared." The other creature stated. A third creature joined the pair then, moving slowly up from a dark bottomless cave.

"They will all die, then. For millions of years this cycle has continued… and we were the ones to start it." The third creature stated in a lower voice, sounding a bit of regret to the other creatures.

"What our ancestors did has nothing to do with us… we couldn't stop them ourselves, so no other species can either. We were the pinnacle of evolution, gods among all the lesser creatures, and even we were destroyed, by our own creations." The first creature stated.

"Is it the hubris of all mortals that makes them seek immortality amongst others?" The second creature asked poetically, the third one rose a bit further above from the two others.

"Immortality is an abomination, created by mortals, never conceived by nature… our ancestors thought they could stop the universe from following its natural path, and for that, they and all the others were cursed for all of eternity... eternity of suffering and death." The creature lamented to the others. The first creature then rose beside the third one.

"However you would want to see it, what's done is done… the universe will die out, like everything… now it's just taking a longer time." The creature stated. The second creature slowly glided down into its cave again.

"Our time comes too someday, like all mortals… the cycle will continue." The creature said, before vanishing into the dark cave. The third creature started to sink itself deeper too.

"The cycle will continue. May some luck bless the people who face annihilation this time" The creature said quietly, vanishing from view.

The lone creature now descended into its own cave, quietly murmuring the repeating sentence.

"The cycle will continue…"

Above the surface of the stormy ocean, a heavy rain started to accompany the thunder, predicting a grim future for the galaxy, like 50 000 years earlier.

****Okay, so first things first. The Star Wars fanfic will continue at some point, it's on hold for now, since I have no motivation to continue it at the moment.**

**This is my new and ongoing fanfic, the story of the entire Mass Effect trilogy. Note that this fanfic only follows the story in its core, and doesn't follow all the smallest details, and changes many things during it. This is my personal version of the story of Commander Shepard, and if anyone will have problems with the decisions I make during this, I apologize for not satisfying your wishes, but I won't change the things I've already changed in the story. **

**Also, this fanfic will be split into three separate stories, the first one depicting the story before and during Mass Effect. The second one will be about the time before and during Mass Effect 2, and the third one will naturally be about the time before, during, and after Mass Effect 3. I hope you'll all get interested in this, I certainly am. Thank you, and Keelah se'lai.** **


	2. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

**Chapter 1: A New Beginning**

A light summer breeze pushed green leaves from the blushing trees, making them dance in the air. The afternoon sun bloomed over the skies, making the day warm and pleasant.

The wind blew a few leaves past a teenaged human boy, who was lying on the roof of an old abandoned shed. The boy looked at the clear skies, following all the birds flying by, and also many of the arriving spaceships, that approached the nearby city center for landing.

Suddenly a landing ship caught the boy's eye. He recognized it being of Quarian design, from its unique appearance. The frigate sized ship was landing slowly, moving towards the spaceport in the nearby city. The boy sat up and jumped down from the roof, his sneakers blowing dust around, as he touched the dirt ground. He swiped his old hoodie and worn jeans off of any dust and sand, and then snatched an old watch from one of his jeans' pockets. The boy looked the time, and a slight smile appeared on his face.

"2:10 PM, just in time." He said, and quickly stuffed the old watch back in his pocket. After that, the boy started to head towards the nearby city.

After walking down the old empty asphalt road for a while, the boy stopped, as he heard loud footsteps behind him. Someone was running at him. As soon as he turned around, he felt a huge thrust of force pushing him down on his back. The boy clenched his teeth together, and opened his brown eyes a bit later. As he opened his eyes, he saw a young girl smiling at him widely, her brown eyes sparkling with joy, and her black hair hanging down towards the boys face. The boy rolled his eyes.

"Bam! You're grounded, Johnny!" The girl said, laughing whole heartedly.

"Jane! You know I don't like that!" The boy said with a slight laugh. The girl laughed more, and stood up, offering her hand to him.

"Come on, big brother! It practices your sense of awareness. You wouldn't want to get surprised in a battle, would you, soldier boy?" The girl said, laughing quietly, and smiling more. The boy grabbed her hand, and stood up. He was a bit taller than her, about the length of her head. He nudged the girl in her shoulder, and smirked cheekily at her.

"Oh, you can be sure I'll be the best soldier in the whole military, sis." The boy said, faking a bit of his pride. The girl rolled her eyes, and looked at him for a bit, before wiping a bit of dust from his cheek.

"Sure, I know you will, John." She said, before giving a quick kiss on her brother's cheek. The girl then looked at him with curious eyes.

"What's going on?" She asked curiously. The boy smiled at her, and told her what he saw.

"It's Shem, he's coming now! We got to get to the spaceport!" He said happily. The girl's eyes widened.

"Shem? Oh my goodness! Let's go! I wonder what he got us this time." She said, and immediately started to head towards the city, her brother right behind her.

The siblings were 17 year old John Shepard, and his 15 year old little sister Jane Shepard. They were orphaned street urchins living in the year 2175 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America. Once the birthplace of one of the most influential nations in the world, Philadelphia had developed into a megacity; housing more than 15 million people, almost 14 times more than it did a little under 200 years ago. Though due to the fast technological advancements in human society for the past 30 years, like many cities around the world; Philadelphia was split between the rich, and the poor.

The city had one of the biggest slum districts in all of America, although many wouldn't consider it a real slum. Most of the "poorer" houses in the city and its suburbs were built in the 21st century at the earliest. The Shepard siblings lived in one such house, in Western Philadelphia. Throughout the years they had lived as street walkers without money or food, that particular old house had provided them with cover, warmth, and a sense of security.

Life was hard for the young brother and sister, as they had almost no money at all to use. They made do every day by trying to find something to eat, and also using the social benefits from the city. Since there were so many unregistered people living in Philadelphia, the city couldn't provide John and his sister a foster home. The siblings were sometimes even forced to steal in order to get by day after day.

They had not always lived in Philadelphia; their whole family was from Boston, Massachusetts. John was born in 2158, five years after the family's eldest son Alan. The siblings' parents; James and Marie Shepard, lived an adequately prosperous life with their three children, in Boston. Their mother worked as a secretary in Boston's city hall, and had some various diplomatic connections. Their father worked at a nearby Alliance shipyard, and was very skilled in technical work. From their parents, the eldest son Alan learned many valuable skills to help him survive. Very early on in their life, Alan took it as his responsibility to teach the same things to his younger siblings.

When John was only 8 years old; he and his siblings tragically lost their parents. The parents left for a vacation on the small colony world of Mindoir, and left their three children in the care of Marie's brother in Philadelphia. During their visit to Mindoir, a band of Batarian pirates attacked the lonely colony world, massacring over half of the planet's population, James and Marie Shepard included. After that tragic event, the three children had to live with their uncle, who also died only a year later in a car accident. Ever since then, the Shepard siblings had lived on their own, orphaned and alone in the big city of Philadelphia.

Alan had taken responsibility over his siblings, taking care of them for five years. After he had turned 18, Alan vanished, leaving John and Jane fend for themselves. John hadn't heard from his older brother ever since Alan disappeared, and sometimes he even thought that his brother had met his end in a gang fight, in the dark alleys of the city. No matter where Alan had gone, John took it as his responsibility to take care of Jane, and teach her all the things Alan had taught him. During their time alone, living by themselves for the last four years, John and Jane had grown closer than ever. Their relationship was stronger than with most siblings, and they loved each other more than anything in the whole world. Only thing John cared about anymore, was his sister's well being, and he was ready for everything and anything to keep her safe. Because Philadelphia had many poor people living in the city, many younger orphans formed violent gangs that fought over power and dominance in the city's various districts. John had kept it his sole duty not to get involved with such gangs, and also keep his sister safe from the hooligans running in those groups. Sometimes John had to resort to violence, in order to keep various gang members away from him, and more importantly, his sister.

Since he was 17 years old, John was eagerly waiting for turning 18, when he could try to recruit into the Alliance as a soldier, and finally earn real money for him and his sister. Being an Alliance marina had always been one of his dreams, John spent many hours of his life watching Alliance warships come and go at Philadelphia's spaceport. He would've given anything to get a chance of joining in with the brave soldiers of the Alliance, and protect humanity from any and all dangers.

The siblings walked together towards the city centre of Philadelphia, heading to their destination; the spaceport of the city. One of their only acquaintances; Shem'Raan vas Orvell was arriving in Philadelphia with his frigate sized Quarian ship. About two years ago, Shem had met John and Jane, while on a business trip for the Migrant Flotilla. Shem'Raan occasionally traveled to Earth in search of valuable supplies for the large Quarian fleet. Since getting known to the two young humans, Shem'Raan had brought various items to them, every time he visited Philadelphia. John and Jane considered the adult Quarian to be one of their only, if not their only friend. Shem felt sympathy for the young orphans, seeing many similarities in them and in his people, who were the outcasts of the Milky Way Galaxy.

After walking for many minutes, the brother and sister had gotten to the city centre. They walked closely together in the streets of Philadelphia, walking past many people minding their own business. Most other people usually tended to avoid getting too close to John or Jane, everyone could see that they were poor, and because of the many teen gangs in the city, no "unfortunate" teenager was looked upon with a kind eye.

The two human youngsters arrived to the opposite street from the spaceport entrance; the building was a tall skyscraper, with docking bays for several ships, located on the roof section of the building. Some people saw the spaceport being unconventional, since large ships would always have to carefully navigate past some other skyscrapers in the city, but for this day the spaceport had remained as it was.

John looked around the entrance doors to the building, seeing several LOKI mechs guarding it. He stroked his chin for a bit.

"Hmm, those mechs are in our way, sis. Any idea on how to get past them?" John asked his younger sister. After looking around a minute, Jane nudged her brother's arm, and pointed to the side of the tall building.

"See? There's a window cleaning platform, we can use that." Jane said, pointing at a lift platform, used to clean the many windows on the building. John smirked and laughed a bit, patting his sister's shoulder.

"Jane Emily Shepard, you are growing out to be a criminal" John said jokingly. Jane rolled her eyes, and started walking across the street with her brother.

"Remember who was the one to get handcuffed a couple of months ago, John Adrian Shepard." Jane said plainly, bringing some irony to John's statement. John cleared his throat.

"Well… it was for a good cause, and you broke me out, remember? You did a bigger crime." John pointed out. Jane rolled her eyes again, and smiled a little.

"Whatever, Johnny." She answered, and kept walking towards the window cleaning lift.

The two walked to the lift, and stepped in, John closing the small door, and pressing the activation button, making the platform move up the side of the building. As the small platform ascended towards the roof of the building, John leaned on the railing of the lift, and looked around the scenery. His sister moved to lean on beside him, looking at the sights too.

"You know… it's been four years since Alan vanished." Jane said quietly. John bit his lower lip, and looked to the other direction, not really wanting to talk about his long lost brother.

"I know… but he's gone, let's not dwell on the past, sis." John said quickly, ending the conversation. Jane nodded silently, and continued to look at the sights.

After a couple of minutes, the platform came to a halt on the roof of the tall skyscraper. The siblings stepped out of the lift, and started to walk around the large landing zone area. The two looked around as they walked on the spacious docking area. John spotted the Orvell, being docked on the left side of the spaceport. As they started to walk towards the Quarian ship, John also spotted a surprising sight on the other side of the spaceport. A newly constructed Alliance cruiser, SSV New Orleans, was docked on the right side of the spaceport. John's eyes widened, as he looked at the shiny new warship. Jane saw how her brother admired the ship, and nudged his shoulder.

"Hey, your drool is flooding the whole place." She said, laughing quietly. John regained his focus, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Jane's body, and started spinning her in the air, laughing. Jane screamed playfully, and laughed.

"Johnny! Let me down!" She yelled, trying to stop her laughing, but failing. John laughed, and put his sister down on the ground again.

"That's for making fun of me, Jane" He said, while smirking goodheartedly. Jane rolled her eyes, and tugged her brother to come with her. As they continued walking towards the Quarian ship, John noticed something even more incredible. Standing a couple of meters from him was a soldier, wearing a grey armor. John didn't even need to take a closer look to recognize the soldier being an N7 soldier.

N7 soldiers were the elite of the elite in the Alliance military; they had the best training, best equipment, and most dangerous and special missions. John's number one dream had always been to become an N7 soldier, a hero who'd be the inspiration for millions of young men like him.

The black human man overlooked two groups of fresh Alliance recruits marching towards the New Orleans, most likely getting the recruits to their training bases somewhere around Alliance controlled space. John couldn't help himself, but to walk a bit closer, seeing the soldier's armor in more detail. He could see the man was holding an N7 Valkyrie assault rifle, the elite rifle exclusively given to N7 soldiers.

Before John could turn around, and head towards the Quarian vessel, the soldier turned around, and noticed him.

"Well, hello there, young man." The dark skinned man said, smiling friendly. John opened his mouth a little, not really knowing what to say. The soldier laughed quietly.

"First time seeing an N7 up close?" The man asked. John swallowed and nodded his head.

"Yes… yes sir." He said stuttering a bit. The soldier smiled and walked in front of John, offering his hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, young one. I'm Commander David Anderson, Alliance navy, as you could probably tell already." The soldier said in a friendly manner. John shook the man's hand.

"Uhm… I'm John… John Shepard, sir Commander." He said quite shyly. Commander Anderson smiled, shaking the young man's hand.

"Out for some sightseeing or business, are you?" Anderson asked friendly.

"Meeting an old friend with my sister… she's…" John said, but suddenly stopped as he saw that Jane wasn't around. Anderson tapped his shoulder.

"No worries, kiddo, your sister is alright; this docking area is full of us soldiers, we'll find her, if she goes missing." He said with a smile. John nodded and smiled slightly too.

At that moment, Jane suddenly appeared next to John again, tugging his sleeve.

"Johnny, come on! I already met with Shem." She said, not noticing the soldier in front of her at first. As Jane saw Anderson, she looked at him with admiring eyes.

"Wow! An N7 soldier! My brother wants to become one of you guys too!" Jane said cheerily. Anderson laughed a bit.

"Well, the Alliance is always welcoming new recruits, so John, if you find it in your interest, just sign right up, and you'll be on your way to the ranks of N7." He said, winking his eye to John. John smirked, and scratched the back of his neck a bit.

Then another Alliance marine walked next to Anderson, getting the Commander's attention.

"Commander Anderson, sir. Captain Wilkins wants to see you." The marine explained. Anderson nodded and turned to look at the youngsters.

"Well… duty calls, I'll catch up with you later. Stay safe, you two!" Anderson said smilingly, and walked away from John and Jane next to the marine.

Jane then grabbed her brother's sleeve, and pulled him with her.

"Come on, soldier boy! Let's go meet Shem." She said, pulling her brother towards the Quarian frigate. John walked beside his sister towards the ship, and a familiar Quarian was standing a couple of meters ahead of them, talking to one of his crewmembers.

"Make sure all of the FG-78 couplings are stored into radiation proof compartments, we don't want a radiation leak at the flotilla." Shem'Raan said to the Quarian man standing in front of him. The Quarian crewmember saluted him.

"Yes, sir." The man said, and left to tend to his duties.

John and Jane approached their Quarian friend, and Shem noticed them, immediately turning to them.

"Now, look who's grown up again? How are you doing, John?" Shem asked, while giving a handshake and a pat on the shoulder to John.

"Pretty good, Shem. It's good to see you again." John answered, smiling. His Quarian friend nodded, smiling under the masking helmet he and all the other Quarians wore as a part of their envirosuits.

"It's good to see you two safe, I know how hard it is to live out here." Shem said, looking at the two young humans.

"We get by okay enough." Jane said, smiling at her friend. Shem returned the smile under his mask, and then reached something from his suit's pockets.

"I brought you two something special. They're used, but I hope you'll find them good enough." The Quarian man said, and pulled out a pair of small glove kind of devices. The two teenagers immediately knew, what they were.

"Oh my goodness! You brought us Omni-Tools?!" Jane exclaimed in surprise. John's eyes widened too, as Shem handed the holographic multipurpose tools to them.

"Yes, I got John a Logic Arrest V, an old but still powerful and dependable model. For you, Jane, I got a Nexus IV, overclocked and boosted to the max, it'll be more than enough for your calculations." Shem explained, as John and Jane put the devices on their arms, both activating them immediately as well. The orange color of the holographic devices made their arms glow. Jane browsed through her new multipurpose tool.

"Yours still needs a bit of calibrating to done, Jane… so if you could, I'll calibrate it with you in the ship." Shem said. Jane smiled happily and nodded,

"Yes please!" She said cheerily. John deactivated his Omni-Tool.

"Thank you very much for these, Shem. I'm sure it'll make some things easier for us." John said to his friend. Shem nodded friendly, but then stroked the chin of his helmet a bit.

"There's something else I brought with me this time as well." He said. Jane and John looked at each other, and then at Shem.

"My niece, Tali; she's never travelled outside of the fleet, and I thought it'd be a nice idea to bring her here, to see a bit of your homeworld." Shem explained. John raised his eyebrow.

"Your niece? How old is she?" He asked.

"She's 14 years old, and extremely shy, but yet very curious. I was hoping you could maybe show her around the city, while I and Jane work on her Omni-Tool" Shem said. John's eyes widened. Jane smirked and nudged his arm.

"Leave it to Johnny; he's a ladies' man alright." She said, laughing a bit.

"Well, as long as you keep her safe, John, you can have the liberty of taking her wherever you want." Shem said to him. John looked a little awkward, never having to had to keep company for a girl before.

"Uhm… okay… uh… I'll show her around a bit." John said rather quietly. Shem patted his shoulder.

"Thank you, John. She's somewhere around this docking area, go find her. I'll go with Jane to see what we can do with this thing." He said, and started to escort Jane with him towards the ship. Jane smirked at her brother, as she walked away.

"Have fun, charmer!" She said, playfully winking an eye to John. John rolled his eyes a bit.

"Yeah, great." He said quietly, and started to walk around the docking area, looking for the young Quarian girl.

After a few minutes of walking, John looked around an area filled with large containers.

"Find a Quarian girl… how hard can that be?" He asked himself, as he looked around.

Suddenly he heard the sound of an Omni-Tool activating, and headed towards the sound. He walked around the corner of a container, and saw a young Quarian figure scanning something with an Omni-Tool. John could easily tell that she was the girl he was looking for, since he had never seen a Quarian that small. He started to walk towards the girl, who had her back faced towards John.

As John walked to her, he couldn't help but have his eyes wander down on the Quarian's body, admiring her physique. Her bottom especially drew his attention. Realizing what he was doing, John shook his head.

"The heck is wrong with me?" He asked himself, and continued walking towards the girl.

John walked behind the Quarian girl, and cleared his throat, trying to get her attention. The girl didn't react, so John tried again, with no success.

"Uh… miss? Miss Tali?" John asked quietly, and gently tapped the girl's shoulder. Suddenly the girl jumped and turned around, her Omni-Tool pointed at John. Before John could even react, the girl's Omni-Tool shot out electricity in to John. John shook a bit, as the electricity flowed through his body.

"Keelah!" The Quarian girl yelled, as she saw what her Omni-Tool did to John.

The next thing John noticed was him laying on the ground, the Quarian girl looking at him. He slowly sat up, grunting a bit.

"Well… that was quite an unusual hello." John said rather quietly, trying to joke a bit. The Quarian girl looked like she was panicking.

"I'm so sorry! Oh Keelah! I didn't mean to!" She tried to explain. John stood up and lifted his hand.

"No, no. It's alright. I shouldn't have walked up to you like that." He said, trying to make the girl calm down. The Quarian girl did calm down, nodding her head.

"If you say so. I'm still sorry I reacted that way… I'm just nervous I guess." She explained. John smiled and nodded his head, then offering his hand.

"I was actually looking for you, I'm John Shepard. I think your uncle Shem has mentioned me?" He said, smiling. The Quarian carefully shook his hand.

"Oh, yes. Uncle Shem has indeed mentioned you, John'Shepard." The girl said, in a happier tone.

"I'm Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Raaya." She said then. John nodded his head.

"That's a funny name you have." He said, not really realizing what he just said. After a second, he quickly took it back.

"No! I mean… no offence, of course, I think you Quarians have… fascinating names." He stuttered. Tali laughed quietly, which made John smile widely, he hadn't ever heard such a cute laugh.

"It's alright; I know we Quarians have unusual names compared to other species." She said, smiling behind her mask. John scratched the back of his head.

"Well, uh… shall we go? I was asked to show you around." He said, smiling a bit sheepishly. Tali nodded her head cheerily.

"Yes, please. I've never been anywhere outside of our fleet, it'll be exciting to see different places." She said happily. John smiled, and then started to escort his new friend off the docking area.

A dozen of minutes later, John walked along a quiet and peaceful sidewalk, in one of the city's parks, with his new friend, Tali. John couldn't help himself to smile widely, as he saw his Quarian friend curiously looking at the various trees and plants that lied around the park. He didn't know why, but he felt some sort of connection to Tali, like they were always meant to meet someday, they got along so well. John also hadn't in all his days seen a cuter and adoring little thing, and that made him blush out of embarrassment at times.

As Tali scanned some trees with her Omni-Tool, John noticed a bush of red roses nearby. He smiled as he walked to the flower bush, and carefully took out one rose. Tali deactivated her Omni-Tool, and as she turned around, she saw John standing in front of him, holding a flower in his hand.

"I, uh… I thought I'd give you this. It's called a rose, be careful of the thorns, they're spiky." John said, handing the flower to Tali. The Quarian girl didn't really know how to react.

"Oh… I… uhm… I've never received a… a flower before." She said quietly, looking at the beautiful rose. John scratched the back of his head again, being a bit embarrassed.

"Well, uh… often around here many boys give flowers to girls they think are pretty." He said, looking at another direction for a bit. Tali blushed heavily under her mask, as she heard that.

"Oh, well… I… oh… thank you." She stuttered quietly, fiddling the rose in her hands. John blushed a bit too, and smiled.

Right then John took a look behind Tali's shoulder, where he saw two young men walking towards them.

"Hey, Shepard!" One of them yelled, as they walked to the standing couple. Tali turned around, and immediately took a few steps backwards, as John positioned himself in front of her, protecting her. John knew who the two guys were; they were Caleb and Brian Stenton, brothers affiliated with one of the teenage gangs in the city.

Occasionally those two gave John and his sister some trouble, thinking themselves being so tough and cool for being part of a gang. Though John always tried to resolve their conflicts without violence, many times he had to get physical with the two hooligans. John stepped in front of Tali, not wanting the two guys to hurt her in any way.

"What do you two want now?" John asked in an angry tone. Caleb Stenton laughed mockingly.

"We just wanted to say hello, dipshit." The tough guy said. His brother laughed too.

"Yeah, hey where's Jane? Did she turn into a Quarian all of the sudden?" Brian asked, pointing at Tali, which made her gently touch John's arm. John's patience was running out quickly.

"Why don't you two just beat it, and leave us alone?" John asked angrily, squeezing his hands into fists. The two brothers came a bit closer.

"You know what? I think this time we'll actually just beat the fuck out of you, you've been annoying enough for too long." Caleb threatened. Brian joined in.

"Yeah, and after that, we'll rip that Quarian's helmet of her ugly head; I've always wanted to see what kind of freaks they are under those masks." Brian said in a threatening manner, making Tali even more scared. John got ready for a fight, but then suddenly a voice distracted the two guys.

"Hey!" Someone yelled behind Brian. As the guy turned around, he was met with a kick to the groin. As Brian screamed in pain, and knelt down, Jane, who was behind the attack, athletically jumped around, and kicked the bully's face.

"Brian!" Caleb yelled, trying to react, but wasn't quick enough, as John quickly and effectively kicked the back of the guy's knee, making him lose balance. After that, John hit the bully in the face with his hard elbow, cracking the tough guy's nose. Caleb fell to the ground, whining in agony, and holding his bleeding nose.

As the two hooligans lied down on the ground, beaten, Jane smirked with her brother, and the two of them gave each other a high five.

"Nice timing, dear sister." John said, smirking and laughing quietly.

"It seems so; I'm always the one to come in to your aid." Jane said jokingly, patting his brother's shoulder.

Tali, who was still standing back, looked at the two beaten bullies, not really believing what just had happened. Jane walked in front of her, and offered her hand.

"Nice to finally meet you, Tali. I'm Jane, this idiot's gorgeous sister." Jane said, smiling in a friendly manner. Tali shook the human girl's hand, still being a bit dumbfounded by what had happened.

"Hi… it's nice to meet you too, I've… never seen two people so casual about fighting." The Quarian girl said. John and Jane quickly glanced at each other.

"Well… we've had to dealt with those two many times before, it's kind of normal for us these days." John explained. Tali nodded slowly, not sure how to react. John then looked around a bit.

"We should head out, before any police will show up, that'll just slow us down more." He explained, taking Tali's hand, and starting to walk away from the park, Jane walking right beside them.

About an hour later, the trio had returned to the spaceport, Tali's uncle already waiting for her. John and Jane stood beside each other, in front of Shem and his niece.

"Thank you for keeping my niece company, John… I'm sure she had an interesting experience." Shem said, patting John's shoulder.

"I was happy to show her around, she's really nice." He said, smiling at Tali, who again blushed a bit behind her mask.

"Thank you… both of you, I had a great time." Tali said cheerily, smiling under her helmet. Jane and John nodded happily.

"Don't mention it, Tali. It was our pleasure." Jane said friendly, smiling widely.

Tali fiddled around with her hands for a bit, and then suddenly hugged Jane. John raised his eyebrows a bit, being as surprised as Jane about the hug. Jane returned the hug, smiling. After that, before John could even do anything, Tali wrapped her arms around him.

That made John's heart jump, not once had a girl other than Jane hugged her. Jane could see her brother's reaction, and she giggled quietly.

"Oh... well… this is a nice surprise." John said awkwardly, blushing a tiny bit. Tali separated from him, and smiled under her mask, looking into the human boy's brown eyes. John didn't know why, but he felt as if Tali's eyes captured his own, and made them stare at her shining eyes behind the mask.

"I'm really happy I met you, John… and you too, Jane. I hope we can be friends." Tali said quietly.

"Are you joking? Of course we're friends, Tali." John said, smiling sweetly, and patting Tali's shoulder. The Quarian girl blushed again, and looked down at her feet.

"Thank you…" She said quietly.

Shem hated to intervene with the youngsters, but he had to.

"Okay, Tali… we should be going, we have to leave the spaceport in half an hour." Shem said to his niece. Tali nodded quietly, and waved her hand at the two humans.

"Well, goodbye then. I really liked meeting you." She said, smiling behind her mask. John and Jane returned the gesture, also smiling.

"We were just as happy to meet you; Tali… have a safe trip back." Jane said happily. John nodded his head, smiling at the Quarians.

After that, Shem escorted his niece towards the ship, saying his goodbyes to the siblings.

"Stay safe, you two… I'll see you again, as soon as I'll be able to return. Farewell for now." Shem said, and started heading towards his ship, Tali walking beside him.

As John and Jane turned around, and started to head off from the spaceport, Jane nudged her brother's arm.

"What?" John asked, looking at his sister. Jane smirked and winked her eye at him.

"I could really tell you two hit your eyes on each other." She said, smiling cheekily. John cleared his throat.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said plainly, continuing to walk away. Jane rolled her eyes, and smiled.

As they walked towards the window cleaning platform, John noticed a couple of Alliance soldiers rushing towards the New Orleans. John assumed that the ship was leaving soon. One of the rushing soldiers dropped a datapad from his pocket, and John immediately rushed after him, grabbing the datapad of the ground.

"Excuse me! Sir! You dropped this." John yelled after the soldier, who turned around, and jogged to him, taking the datapad off his hands.

"Thanks, kid! I would've been in trouble without this." The soldier thanked John, and then quickly turned back around, and headed towards the cruiser.

Then out of the blue, John heard a loud sound traveling towards the spaceport, almost like a rocket. He saw two flashing projectiles approaching fast.

"Missiles!" One marine screamed, but too late. The two missiles hit the New Orleans on its side hull, causing a massive chain reaction of explosions. A massive shockwave caught everyone off guard, and John could feel the intense heat coming out of the destructive explosions, as he flew back. His clothes burned and got torn up, as he fell down on the ground. John immediately lost his consciousness.

John didn't know where he was, what was going on. All he could see was black. Then he started to hear muffled sounds, and he left his body shaking. He opened his eyes slowly, his sight being blurry and unfocused. He could see Jane tearing up over him, shaking his body.

"No, John. Please don't be dead, please no!" Jane begged, trying to get her brother awake.

John opened his eyes fully, and groaned in pain, trying to move, but realizing it was pointless, he was paralyzed by pain. Jane embraced her brother, and cried onto him.

"Oh, Johnny! I thought you had left me!" She said, crying quietly. John slowly moved his hand to stroke Jane's hair.

"I'll never leave you, Jane… ever." He said weakly. John looked around, and all he saw was flames and smoke. The entire spaceport was filled with fire, and people running around, trying to escape, as well as the emergency operators trying to get everything under control.

Jane noticed a familiar soldier walking around, and got his attention.

"Mr. Anderson! Mr. Anderson, over here! John's hurt!" Jane yelled in a crying voice, her face filled with tears. Anderson saw the two young siblings, and rushed to them, kneeling beside Jane.

"Dear God. Okay, John… just stay still, we'll get you out of here." Anderson said, trying to calm them down. John really couldn't move, even if he wanted to.

Anderson looked around, trying to spot any paramedics, or anyone who could help John.

Suddenly John felt like his head was about to explode, he groaned in pain and lifted his hands to his head, holding it. Anderson's eyes widened, and he pulled Jane back from her brother a bit. John didn't know what was going on; he just felt immense pain in his body.

"What's happening to him?!" Jane asked in panic. Anderson couldn't answer her, he had no idea.

John opened his eyes, and saw that his whole body was surrounded by shining blue energy. Some various pieces of debris floated in the air, as the blue energy radiated out of his body. He was afraid, what was happening to him?

An N7 soldier ran beside Anderson, the woman apparently seeing what was going on.

"Stand back, Anderson! He has dark energy radiation!" The woman ordered, and came closer to John, her body suddenly being engulfed by blue energy as well. The woman knelt down beside John.

"Just stay still! This won't hurt." The woman said to John, who was still moaning in pain.

The woman's right hand formed a blue ball of energy, which glowed like a star.

"Sleep." The woman said soothingly, and shot the ball of energy at John. As the energy hit him, John's view blackened, and he fell unconscious.

****Okay, so here we go! First chapter in my new ME series. So the obvious chances are that Shepard actually has siblings. I also thought it'd be cute if Shepard and Tali met years before ME1, so that's why she was in this chapter. **

**I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know in reviews! Keelah se'lai!****


	3. Chapter 2: The Price of a Life

**Chapter 2: The Price of a Life**

Philadelphia's climate wasn't something David Anderson had gotten used to yet. Spending the last ten years around the Galaxy, he had seen and experienced more than most humans had, but he never had seen anything more depressing as the "typical" weather and climate in his home city of London. Even though being raised in Britain, Anderson didn't have a British accent in his English, which made some of his colleagues amazed, when they heard where he was from.

Anderson was born in 2131, in London, England. He was born to a RAF pilot, Paul Anderson, and his wife, Stephanie, who worked as a nurse in one of the hospitals in the city. Anderson saw the evolution of humanity's spacefaring technology in 2148, as human scientist found the famous Prothean data files on Mars, which lead humanity to a new golden age of technological advancements. Earth was in a bad shape, when the discovery of extraterrestrial life spread across the Sol system. Every human was either scared out of their minds or fascinated beyond belief about this revolutionary discovery. Anderson was among the billions of people who saw the first news about the discovery of the Mass Relay near Charon, Pluto's moon. Like many more in the year of 2152, the 21 year old Anderson, a fresh recruit in the British Armed Forces, saw the departure of Jon Grissom, and the crew of UNSV Explorer, who went through the recently activated Relay.

For the next five years, the governments of Earth had colonized newfound planets. As tensions rose between the colonized worlds, the United Nations was disbanded, and replaced by the Systems Alliance, which effectively united all the nations of Earth, and the colonized new worlds under a single military government. Even though all nations on Earth were united under the flag of the Alliance, most of them still kept their independence. Some of the poorer countries in Africa unified, forming such new nations as the West African Confederacy, and the Greater Republic of Central Africa.

As humanity grew its reach in the Galaxy, more and more people became anxious of an alien invasion, which led the Alliance to form its military force and navy. With the revolutionary technology gotten from the Protheans, humanity was able to utilize their use of Mass Effect fields, and thus build larger and more advanced starships than ever before. With the upgraded warships, Alliance began to patrol its colonized star systems, trying to stay alert for any alien attacks. As the Alliance's military grew larger, Anderson joined in, wanting to protect his homeworld from any and all threats.

Soon enough in 2157, humanity made its first contact with sentient alien life. As many people feared, the aliens were hostile, attacking numerous human trade ships in a few days. After the alien attackers destroyed a small military convoy, the Alliance mobilized its navies. Anderson, then ranked a Corporal in the Alliance navy, was among the first human soldiers to counterattack the aggressive aliens, the Turians. The First Contact War was short, but still bloody, taking more than 15 000 human lives, while the Turians lost over 7 000 of their own.

Anderson sighed quietly, as he remembered back to that fateful conflict, where he lost many friends. Thinking back to those bloody days, Anderson walked to sit on a nearby bench, at the front of the Central Hospital of Philadelphia, where John was taken in to recover from the surprise attack on the Alliance warship.

Anderson looked towards the spaceport from the bench, still seeing a couple of statues of smoke rising from the explosion site. He couldn't figure out who was behind the attack, most obvious culprits were Batarian terrorists, but Anderson wasn't so sure about that. He thought it had to be something more domestic, something nearer to humanity, than an alien terrorist attack.

Thinking of alien attacks, Anderson remembered again one battle he fought in the First Contact War, where he almost lost his life.

_A sudden gust of wind rocked an A-45 Firefly gunship around. The gunships were the predecessors of the modern A-61 Mantis gunship, introduced in 2170. The gunship looked more like the Kodiak series shuttle, which could also be used in space, than a normal attack gunship, which were deployed from carrier ships in orbit._

_Corporal Anderson sat on his seat next to his comrades in the fast moving ship. The marines were armed and ready for battle. Anderson was among the 15 Alliance marines, who were the first ones to deploy to the human colony on the planet Shanxi, which was hit hard by a Turian invasion force two days earlier. _

_Another gust of wind gave the gunship turbulence, making one of the marines moan in sickness._

"_Not used to flying, Pattinson?" Sergeant Josh Rockwell, Anderson's direct commanding officer, said in a joking manner. The ill feeling marine looked at the Sergeant._

"_No, sir… turbulences have never been my soft spot" Private Pattinson said, trying to breathe calmly, so he wouldn't throw up. _

_A marine sitting right next to Anderson, Private Kopiloff, huffed quietly, getting everyone's attention._

"_Blyadj. These stupid birds really fucked our colony over here." Kopiloff stated, using his native Russian swearwords. A Hispanic marine, Private Jorge Estalla, spoke up next._

"_I've never gotten the idea why they are called birds. They look like some sort of dinosaurs to me." The private said. A Private next to him, Jeffrey Prince, answered his comrade's question._

"_The Turians evolved from avian creatures, that's why." Prince explained. Estalla shooked his head._

"_Whatever, man… I just care about how many bullets I need to kill them." The Private remarked. Anderson checked his M7-Avenger assault rifle. _

"_Your gun not clean, Anderson?" Sergeant Rockwell asked him. Anderson looked at his commanding officer, and answered._

"_No, sir. Just checking that it works properly." Anderson answered. The Sergeant nodded, and looked the other way._

_After a moment, the commanding officer in the gunship, Lieutenant Charles Ingram, stood up and turned to face his 14 subordinates._

"_Alright, mates! This is it! Today we'll show those bloody aliens how us humans fight! They invaded us! Killed our people! Destroyed our colonies! This time it'll be them who get that treatment! And after our victory here today, we'll mass all our forces and drive those fucking birds back to their irradiated homeworld, and make it even more radiated! Are you ready, marines!?" Ingram yelled with fiery enthusiasm. All the marines, Anderson included, shouted "Hooah!" in unison. _

_Right after that, the gunship began to rock violently, and the marines could see anti-air fire being fired from the ground. Anderson's heart jumped, landing's like these were not his favourite. The flak fire increased, making the gunship rock even harder. The pilots had to do maneuvers to dodge incoming shells._

_Out of the blue, another gunship flying next to the one Anderson was in, exploded in a hellfire, as an anti-air shell hit its engine. The flaming wreckage pummeled down, raining debris down on the ground._

"_Holy shit!" One of the marines shouted. The atmosphere in the gunship got tense, as most of the marine privates started looking around anxiously. Fear was obviously in the air, as the gunship closed in on its landing zone._

_Anderson glanced out the window, as two AH-92 Super Apache attack helicopters flew past the slower gunships, shooting several missiles as they passed. The Super Apaches were one of the only military aircraft still used, that had rotors operating as the main lifters. Outside of Earth, outdated aircraft like them were rarely used. Since the discovery of mass effect fields the Alliance had spent years developing a new kind of attack gunship, which would later become the modern A-61 Mantis. _

_As the transport gunship lowered its altitude, nearing the landing zone, Anderson could feel his heart beating faster and faster. This could be his last day; after all, many humans had already died from the cruel hands of the Turians. _

_The gunship's engines changed their position, tilting towards the nose of the aircraft, reducing the ship's speed immensely. The pilots lowered the landing gear, and prepared to land on the ground. _

_Inside the transport, the marines waited for orders. A red light turned on, and Lieutenant Ingram took control of his soldiers._

"_Alright, you wankers! Stand up! Helmets on!" Ingram shouted. All the marines grabbed their combat helmets under their seats, and put them on. _

_Then out of the blue, as the marines began to stand up, a hail of machine gun fire shattered the gunship's windows, instantly piercing many marine's armoured suits. Blood splattered as the marines dropped dead, after being hit. A Private sitting next to Anderson got hit too, his neck pumping blood like a fountain. Anderson gasped, and stood up with the surviving marines._

_The red light turned green, and the landing ramp on the back of the gunship lowered. _

"_Go! Go!" Lt. Ingram shouted, as the marines rushed out of the gunship, some of them still getting hit by stray bullets from the machine gun fire. Anderson rushed out of the aircraft, getting welcomed by grenade hits on the ground, making explosions that shot dirt to the skies. _

_Anderson quickly turned around, and started to run towards the rendezvous point the high command had planned. Marines around him dropped like flies, as the Turian fire cut them down. Anderson ran to a downed AH-92, and took cover from the machine gun fire in the wreckage. Sgt. Rockwell soon arrived beside him, a few other marines following close by. _

"_Hell of a day, eh Anderson?!" Rockwell shouted, as the sound of battle was overwhelming. Anderson ducked his head, as a mortar shot landed near the wreck, raining rocks on the marines' helmets. _

"_We need to get to the rendezvous point, sir!" Anderson answered, raising his head again. Rockwell nodded his head, and looked at the two privates taking cover beside them._

"_Alright! You two! Follow us to the rendezvous point!" Rockwell yelled at the two young privates, who nodded their heads. _

_Anderson took a deep breath, and then he stood up from his cover, and followed Sgt. Rockwell and the two privates towards their destination. Machine gun fire immediately increased, as the marines began their charge at the enemy. One of the marine privates got hit almost instantly, his body being ripped to shreds. The second private met the same fate soon after. Anderson ran behind Rockwell, ducking his head every time a mortar shot hit the ground. _

_Suddenly a mortar shot hit the ground right in front of Rockwell. The explosion pushed both marines on the ground. As Anderson tried to get up, he saw that his squad's sergeant had gotten hit. Rockwell moaned on the ground, missing both of his legs. _

"_Oh, for fuck's sake! Ouh! Fuckin' bastards took my legs!" Rockwell yelled in pain. Anderson got up quickly, not knowing what to do. Then Rockwell suddenly pointed at another direction._

"_Look out!" The sergeant yelled. As Anderson turned to look around, he saw private Prince trying to advance forward, only to be hit by a blue ball of dark energy. The impact shattered Prince's body armor, vaporizing half of his face and throwing him down on the ground. As Anderson quickly grabbed his rifle from the ground, he saw a Turian soldier approaching through smoke, his body surrounded by this glowing blue energy. Anderson had heard of these 'biotics', and that they were extremely powerful and dangerous. _

_The Turian soldier approached Anderson with speed, and the corporal opened fire. The Turian biotic formed a blue energy wall to protect him from the bullets, and then shot out a wave of energy at Anderson. The shot hit him to his chest, shattering his body armor and helmet, swinging it away in the air. Anderson flew back a couple of meters, and dropped on the ground, groaning in pain. The Turian soldier approached Anderson again, taking a pistol from his hip, and pointing it at the human corporal. _

_Just before the Turian was able to pull the trigger, his head exploded into a blue bloody mess. The Turian fell on the ground, dead, and Anderson sighed in relief. He turned his face towards his sudden savior, who ran beside him. The human soldier then got hit in his helmet, shattering it on the ground. As the marine took his helmet away, Anderson recognized him. The man who had just saved him was Sergeant Jack Harper, a marine from another squad. Harper helped Anderson back on his feet._

"_You alright, Anderson?" Harper asked. Anderson just nodded his head, trying to get his bearings again. _

_As the two marines stood there, three AH-92s flew across the sky, firing countless missiles at the Turian positions up front, doing devastating work of them. Then dozens of marines, lead by Lt. Ingram, ran past them, approaching the Turian positions._

"_Here we go, lads! Charge!" Lt. Ingram shouted, as he and many marines ran towards the Turians. _

_Before Anderson and Harper could join their comrades, a terrifying sight stopped them. From behind a huge cloud in the sky, appeared a large Turian cruiser, with hundreds of fighters escorting it. Anderson and Harper couldn't do else than just crouch down for cover, as the Turian starfighters dove down in to attack. The fast moving Turian fighters did an effective strafe run on the dozens of Alliance marines, trying to charge in to the Turian positions. Lt. Ingram with most of the marines, Pvt. Estalla and Pattinson included, got gunned down in seconds, as the terrifying laser guns of the fighters tore their bodies apart. _

_Anderson and Harper stayed down, as the fighters flew over them, being one of the only survivors from that strafe run. As they stood up again, the next thing they heard and saw was even more terrifying. The Turians started their own charge at the Alliance positions. _

_Dozens of Turians ran towards the shaken marines, shouting their war cries. Anderson and Harper opened their jaws in pure disbelief, as the Turians charged at them like in a Japanese banzai charge during World War II. Harper reloaded his rifle._

"_I hope you've said your prayers, Anderson." Harper stated plainly, and quickly took a few steps forward, starting to fire upon the approaching attackers. Anderson, who had no rifle anymore, didn't really know what to do._

_Pvt. Kopiloff, who was among the few who survived, jerked his shotgun, and waited for the Turians to come closer._

"_Come at me you svolochi! Come get some!" The Russian soldier yelled on top of his lungs. _

_Sgt. Harper was able to take down a few charging Turians with his M7-Avenger, but the masses of Turian soldiers overwhelmed him soon. Anderson couldn't but watch helplessly, as a Turian soldier attacked Harper in hand in hand combat. Kopiloff shot a couple of Turians with his shotgun, but as soon as he had to reload, the Turians retaliated, shooting his body full of bloody holes. _

_Anderson looked around the carnage around him. Many marines were now trying to fend off the attacking Turians with their bare hands, but the stronger and larger aliens were able to beat them down easily. As Anderson looked in front of him again, he saw a Turian soldier running towards him._

_The gray skinned Turian soldier stopped a couple of meters from the unarmed Anderson, and aimed his assault rifle at the human marine. Anderson just stood there, accepting his fate. As the Turian pulled the trigger on his gun, the rifle spit out smoke. The assault rifle had malfunctioned. _

_Seeing this as his golden opportunity, Anderson quickly charged forward, and attacked the Turian. The Turian put his assault rifle in front of him, to defend himself, and Anderson grabbed it, pushing it against his enemy. The two soldiers then had a battle of strength, trying to push each other as hard as they could. Then out of the blue, the Turian soldier kneecapped Anderson in his stomach, which made him lose all the air in his lungs. The Turian kicked his human enemy back, which made Anderson fall on his back on the ground. As the Turian then approached him, planning to use his assault rifle as a club to beat on the human marine, Anderson then remember he had his pistol on his hip. Anderson grabbed the pistol from his hip, and quickly aimed at the attacking Turian, and shot. The bullet pierced the Turians armor, hitting him in the chest, spraying a bit of blue blood out of the wound._

_As Anderson tried to fire again, the pistol jammed. The Turian soldier just got angrier from being shot, and he made his way over Anderson, kicking the pistol out of the human's hand, and kneeling down to him, starting to violently choke his enemy. Anderson couldn't fight against the Turian's strength, even if he tried his hardest to get the alien's hands off his throat. _

_Just as Anderson was losing his breath, and life, the Turian soldier was suddenly stopped from choking him._

_Two other Turian soldiers approached the one choking him, and apparently stopped their comrade._

"_Arterius! Vini di collen sparati!" The other Turian soldier, clearly higher ranked, ordered. The Turian choking Anderson stopped and stood up, grunting angrily._

"_Centurio Gallen! Humu si dal goin mi!" The Turian said in a frustrated tone. The Turian officer shook his head, and pointed at Anderson, though still looking at the other Turian._

"_Dil humu os hadari captivir! Di collen moronit as dih!" The officer shouted. The other Turian grunted in anger, and looked at Anderson, clearly wanting to just kill him. _

_The Turian officer took out a small device out of his body armor's pocket, and threw it to Anderson, pointing him to put it in his ear. Anderson did as the Turian officer told him to, and placed the small handsfree looking device in his right ear. After that, the Turian officer nodded his head._

"_Good. Now you can understand us, human." The officer said. Anderson raised his eyebrow, as he didn't know that Turians had translator devices like these. The other Turian cut in._

"_Sergeant! I humbly ask to be allowed to execute this human! He attacked me, it's only right to let me defend myself!" The Turian complained. The officer looked at him, and shook his head._

"_This human isn't attacking you right now, is he, Arterius? Now shut your mouth and do as I order!" The officer yelled. The other Turian, apparently called Arterius, mumbled something quietly, and then stayed quiet. Then the Turian officer turned to face Anderson._

"_I am Sergeant Vergil Gallen of the Turian Hierarchy. State your name and rank, human." Sgt. Gallen ordered. Anderson swallowed quietly._

"_Corporal David Anderson, Alliance Navy." He answered plainly. The Turian sergeant nodded his head, and looked at the other Turian next to him._

"_Bartus! Take this human to the camp." Sgt. Gallen ordered. The Turian saluted his officer, and quickly came to Anderson, and grabbed him, starting to escort him away._

_As Anderson was walked away by the Turian soldier, he took a look around the battlefield, filled with the bodies of humans and Turians. He also saw Sgt. Rockwell's body lying on the ground, having been died of blood loss. So many dead, and for what? _

_About an hour later, Anderson was sitting on the ground in the Turian camp with 20 of his comrades, handcuffed. Sgt. Harper was sitting next to him, having survived his ordeal with the Turians. All the marines were just waiting for what the Turians would decide to do with them. All of them had a Turian soldier behind them, aiming their rifles to their heads. _

_The Turian sergeant Gallen discussed with the Turian commander nearby, and after a while, both of them came before the prisoners._

"_I am General Desolas Arterius, humans. Due to your hostilities towards the Turian Hierarchy and the Galactic Council, you are all sentenced to death. The punishment will be handed down immediately." The Turian general stated calmly, but deviously. _

_All the human marines looked around in panic. One soldier tried to beg from the Turians._

"_No! Please! We're prisoners of war, you can't kill us!" The young man begged in a weak voice. General Arterius laughed._

"_Hah. You're asking for mercy, even after your species violated one of the most important laws in Citadel space! You're violent, you're brutal, and you're unpredictable! That's why we will make sure you won't do any more harm to this fragile Galaxy!" Desolas stated angrily. _

_None of the marines could do anything to stop the bloodthirsty Turians. As the general ordered his men to aim and prepare to execute all of the human soldiers, a bleeping machine caught everyone's attention. A Turian soldier pressed a button on a console, and a hologram of three aliens, one of them Turian, appeared._

"_General Arterius, stand down!" The Turian in the hologram said. Desolas couldn't believe his ears._

"_But Councilor, I'm doing a service for the Galaxy!" The Turian general objected. The alien next to the Turian, a blue skinned female alien, with some sort of tentacles growing at the back of her head, chirped in._

"_We have reached a truce with the humans, General. You are to stand down immediately, and cease all hostilities with the Alliance." The female alien said. _

"_What?! But the humans are a threat to us all!" Desolas objected, trying to convince the alien council. The third alien, some sort of a lizard, came in as well._

"_The activation of Relay 314 was an accidental experiment by the humans. We can't punish them for not knowing about our laws and rules, general. This short war is over; we will welcome the humans to join us." The lizard councilor stated._

"_Are we understood, general?" The Turian councilor asked. Desolas opened his mouth, his mandibles moving uncontrollably. _

"_You… I… no! To the void with your orders!" The turian general yelled in defiance, and grabbed a pistol from his hip. Desolas quickly aimed his gun at Sgt. Harper, and pulled the trigger. The shot pierced Harper's armor, and the sergeant fell to the ground, moaning in pain. Anderson gasped, as he saw the man collapse on the ground. _

_The alien council gasped as well, clearly being outraged._

"_Seize him at once!" The Turian councilor ordered. All of the turian soldiers then raised their weapons, and aimed at their general. Desolas looked around in disbelief._

"_Traitors! You're all traitors to the Hierarchy!" The turian general yelled. _

_Then, suddenly, the grey skinned turian soldier, who had choked Anderson just an hour earlier, walked past his turian comrades, grabbing a pistol from his hip, and aiming it to his general's head. Desolas turned to look at him._

"_Saren? Brother?" The turian asked quietly. _

_His brother, Saren Arterius, didn't say anything. Instead, he pulled the trigger on his pistol._

Anderson woke up from his flashback, as a police skycar, utilized by the Philadelphia Police Department, flew past the hospital with its sirens on. The 44 year old soldier then got up from the bench, and headed inside the hospital, going through the main entrance doors.

As he entered the hospital's main lobby, Anderson could immediately see how the recent terrorist attack had increased the surplus of patients in the hospitals around the city. Many humans, turians and even asari had suffered injuries and casualties in the tragic attack. A couple of quarians had also gotten injured in the explosion, but all of them had been taken to different medical centers, since they required sterilized rooms to tend to their wounds.

Anderson walked up to the receptionist's counter, leaning on the table.

"Good day. I'd like to see patient John Shepard, he was brought here as a victim of the spaceport attack." Anderson explained to the woman, sitting behind the counter. Before the receptionist could answer, another woman, in an Alliance officer uniform, walked behind the receptionist.

"John Shepard has been put in special quarantine by the orders of General Westmoore, Captain Wilkins, and Commander Anderson. No visitors are allowed to enter his room." The officer said in a plain voice.

Anderson wasn't wearing his uniform, so he understood why the woman didn't recognize him. He took out an ID card given to Alliance personnel, and showed it to the woman officer.

"I believe I have the authorization." Anderson said plainly. The officer took a look at the ID card, and immediately saluted Anderson.

"Commander, sir!" The woman said. Anderson lifted his hands.

"At ease, officer. Now, can I go see them?" He asked, smiling slightly. The female soldier nodded her head.

"Yes, absolutely, sir. Just go down that hallway over there; Mr. Shepard's room is on the far end of it." The officer said, pointing at a closed off hallway, guarded by a security officer.

Anderson nodded at the officer, and then headed towards the closed door, the security officer opening it for him. Anderson walked through the door into the hallway, and made his way towards the end of it, where John's room was. Two Alliance marines saw him coming, and took positions in front of the door, but as Anderson showed his ID card again, the marines saluted him, and stepped aside.

As Anderson stepped inside the room, he saw John lying on the bed, most of his body wrapped in bandages, and Jane sitting on a chair next to him. The two youngsters saw their visitor enter the room.

"Good day, Mr. Anderson" Jane greeted. Anderson closed the door, and walked in front of John's hospital bed.

"Hey, you two. How are you doing?" He asked, smiling slightly. John grunted quietly.

"Well… my headache is killing me" He said plainly. Anderson nodded his head.

"That's unfortunately the side effect of being a biotic now, especially since you were just implanted with the enhancement implants." He explained. John nodded silently, lifting his hand up a bit, and slowly beginning to form a blue ball of energy in it. Anderson put his own hand on top of John's, stopping him from going further with the biotic experiment.

"You'll need practice and teaching in your new powers, John." He explained, smiling warmly. John nodded his head.

"I assume you were the one to buy the implants for me?" He asked. Anderson smiled, and nodded.

"Yes, don't mention it, I made sure you have the best implants in the market right now, and I can make sure you'll also get the best training." Anderson explained. Jane looked at John, who was thinking.

"There's a catch, isn't there?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. Anderson sighed quietly.

"Yes. John… would you be willing to join the Alliance, after getting proper biotic training first?" Anderson asked. John's eyes widened.

"Are you… serious?" John asked quietly. Jane tugged her brother's arm.

"John! This is your chance! You've always wanted to become an Alliance soldier!" She said cheerily. John wasn't as sure.

"But… what about you? What would happen to Jane?" He asked, looking at his sister, and then Anderson.

"I could take care of her, John, until she's 18. I can give you both a good chance to get your life on its right path." Anderson offered, smiling. John and Jane looked at each other.

"So… you would spend your own time, and money, to give us a chance?" Jane asked curiously. Anderson immediately nodded.

"Absolutely. You two deserve a better life than this… I'm willing to give what I own, to give you a chance to get a better life." He explained.

Jane looked at her brother, smiling widely.

"John, we gotta do this! This is our chance!" She said. John sighed quietly.

"Mr. Anderson… can I talk about it with Jane first, before deciding?" He asked. The middle aged man nodded his head.

"I'll come back in ten minutes." Anderson said, patting John's leg, and leaving the room.

After Anderson had left the room, John looked at his sister.

"Jane, honey. Are you sure this is the right way to go?" He asked. Jane nodded, touching her brother's hand.

"Yes, John. Please, we need to do this… we'll die out on the streets sooner or later." She assured. John was quiet, looking at his sister. He then gently touched Jane's cheek.

"You're dear to me, Jane… I'll always be there for you." He said quietly. Jane smiled slightly, and kissed her brother's cheek.

"I know, John. And no matter if we couldn't stay together when you're training, always remember that I love you." She said, smiling lovingly. John smiled too.

"I will, and you also remember that I love you too." He said. Jane smiled, and hugged her brother, embracing him tightly.

After a couple of minutes, Anderson came back. John and Jane were still hugging each other. Anderson broke a smile, when he saw that.

"So, have you decided?" He asked. John and Jane separated from each other, and looked at the soldier.

"Yes… we accept, Mr. Anderson. I'll… join the Alliance after training in biotics" John declared. Anderson smiled, and walked to the two youngsters, placing his hands on their shoulders.

"You're doing the right thing, you two. I promise you, everything will only turn out better from now on." Anderson assured, smiling at them. John and Jane nodded, ready to face the new challenges and experiences they'd get soon, starting a new life.

**-A week later- **

John walked slowly out of the hospital's doors, Jane holding his hand. The shining sun made him close his eyes for a minute. The two young humans saw their new guardian, Commander Anderson, standing by an Alliance Kodiak shuttle, waiting for them.

As they walked to him, Anderson smiled.

"Ready?" He asked the two siblings. They smiled, and nodded. Anderson nodded then too, and escorted them inside the shuttle.

As the shuttle closed its door, and started to ascend to the sky, John spent many minutes watching outside the window, seeing how his home city, Philadelphia, got smaller and smaller. This was a new beginning for him and his sister, and he hoped beyond belief their new life would carry out to be a good one.

****Okay, so here we go; chapter two! Mentioning some of the chances, you'll see that Anderson's backstory is different than the game one. I also thought it'd be interesting to see his perspective during the First Contact War, which I made to be more of a serious war than it was in the game.**

**Also, I gave the Turians their language, a weird mix of Latin and Norse languages. And, as you saw, Saren was introduced too, his backstory changed, along with his brother's. **

**I hope you all like the story so far, please let me know in the reviews, they keep me writing this. Take care, and wait for the next chapter** **


	4. Chapter 3: The Avenger of Elysium

**Chapter 3: The Avenger of Elysium**

**Five years later…**

A thumping sound of muffled explosions woke John up. His vision blurry, John slowly opened his eyes, not seeing anything else but smoke and fire. Shaking his head to wake up more, John felt like his head was exploding. Opening his eyes, he looked around his surroundings, finding himself laying on the ground, in a large fountain located in the centre of Illyria, the capital city of a human colony world Elysium. The fountain was in ruins, all the water had drained away earlier. John was in the middle of a massacre site, everywhere he looked, he saw bodies of his fellow soldiers.

Just an hour earlier, he had been riding on a sky train, with all of his comrades, in order to have a shore leave in the elegant city. As soon as they had arrived on the train station, a surprise attack had begun. Without any warning, a group of warships had descended on the city, and opened fire. Dozens of fighters had gunships had filled the sky, raining down fire on the innocent city of Illyria. No one had seen it coming, and before they even knew what was going on, John and his squad had put on their armors, and charged to the streets of the city to defend the innocent civilians from the attackers. Not long into the battle, John's squad was separated from most of the other squads, and had to face down a couple of waves of attacking batarians, and vorcha.

Obviously the attackers were part of the organized raiding fleet that had instigated the Skyllian Blitz, a widespread series of attacks on human colony worlds, two weeks earlier. Even though the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy couldn't prove it, both were more than sure that the raiding armies were supported and supplied by the Batarian Hegemony, in order to harass human colony efforts near the borders of Citadel space.

After regrouping with majority of the defending forces near the city centre, a crushing ambush had taken everyone by surprise, and decimated most of the forces. John's squad was among the casualties, having been massacred into the fountain. But through some miracle, John had survived.

Now the 22 year old Alliance marine, ranked Sergeant, was lying in a bloody fountain turned grave, filled with the bodies of his comrades. John could see two other wounded marines trying to move their bodies. To John's dismay, he saw a patrol of batarian soldiers walking past the fountain and its premises, assumingly looking for survivors. Suddenly one of the batarians jumped on the edge of the fountain, looking around the carnage. The soldier saw the two wounded Alliance marines, trying to move themselves.

John cursed himself for not being able to say anything to warn the marines, because if he did that, he would give away his own survival as well. The batarian soldier raised his M-55 Argus assault rifle at one of the marines, opening fire. The marine's body was ripped to shreds by the powerful assault rifle, and the soldier died instantly. The other soldier saw that, and tried to move his body more quickly, in panic. The batarian then aimed at him, and shot him full of bullet holes too. The marine's body ceased to move, as his blood flowed on the ground.

John clenched his teeth together, closing his eyes in pain of seeing more of his fellow marines die from the hands of these brutal pirates, or slavers or whatever the hell they were.

The batarian jumped off the ledge, into the fountain, and walked around, still looking for any survivors. The murderous soldier kicked one marine's body, checking that he wasn't alive. After that, the batarian turned around, and left the fountain, rushing to reach his comrades.

After the batarians had left, John was brave enough to move. He started crawling on the ground, passing many of the bodies in the fountain. He tried to stay as quiet as possible, but his armor made noise whenever he crawled forwards. As he crawled over and past the many bodies, John could suddenly see another marine move a bit on the other end of the fountain. The marine saw him, and put a finger in front of his mouth.

"Shh." The older looking soldier whispered. After that, he grabbed an M-96 Viper sniper rifle from the ground next to him, and moved himself down on the ground, starting to crawl to John's right, towards the other side of the fountain.

"I need your help, friend." The older soldier said, crawling towards the other end of the fountain. John kept quiet, crawling after the soldier.

"Do as I say… and we can have vengeance on this slaughter." The soldier said. John continued being quiet, following the more experienced soldier.

After a moment, they reached their destination. The soldier moved himself to sit on the ground, leaning his back against the fountain's wall. John moved to sit next to him, leaving a broken gap of the fountain's wall between them.

"I injured my hand in the battle, which means I can't aim my rifle anymore…" The man explained, showing his bloodied left hand to John. After that, he handed the sniper rifle to John.

"Take my rifle, and watch through the gap… put those two batarians in your scope." The soldier said, pointing through the gap, towards a gunship wreckage a distance away. John looked at the rifle, a bit uneasy.

"I've… never used a sniper rifle before." He said quietly. The older man put his hand on the rifle's muzzle, pushing it down to lean on the gap, pointed towards the wreckage.

"I will guide you, my friend." The soldier assured. John nodded his head quietly, placing himself to lie on the ground, looking through the rifle's scope.

"Being a sniper is like being a normal hunter… the difference between hunting an animal and a sentient being is just that the sentient ones can kill you all the same as you can kill them." The man told. John looked through the scope, seeing the two batarian soldiers talking and smoking cigarettes by the downed A-61 gunship.

"Timing is your greatest friend, and enemy. Fire at the wrong time, and your chances of survival go down tremendously, but fire at the correct time, and your enemies will never know who or what hit them." The man explained, placing his hand on John's shoulder, making him ease his muscles.

"Patience and relaxation are essential to your success, friend. Take deep breaths, and calm yourself, your target will never get away, as long as you keep your mind cool, and your nerves colder." The soldier explained more, looking through the gap, at the batarians.

"Sniping was a form of art centuries ago. Snipers were the apex predators on the battlefield, able to change the tide of battle in moments. Such legends as the 'White Death' Simo Häyhä, and Vasily Zaytsev, both that killed hundreds of their enemies are the pinnacle of what it is to be a sniper." The man told, his eyes filled with admiration of those old legends. John nodded his head, taking a quick glance at his companion, noticing a Norwegian flag on his battered armor.

"You're Norwegian?" John inquired. The man smiled slightly, and nodded.

"Yes, I'm Han Fredriksen, formerly part of the Norwegian rangers, back on Earth. Such a position was glorious; to be able to act as a hunter in a cold winter's grasp was great." The man said, remembering his old days before the Alliance. John nodded, continuing to look at his batarian targets through the scope.

"I'm John Shepard, from Philadelphia…" John introduced himself. Han nodded his head, and looked through the gap, placing his hand on John's shoulder.

"Alright, Shepard… wait until their fighters fly above us again, and then take the shot, the sound of those old batarian fighter jets will take away the sound of your shots." Han instructed.

John looked through the scope, placing one of the two batarians in his crosshairs, waiting for the moment to strike. He heard a sound of approaching jets, and watched to the sky for a moment, noticing to batarian fighters flying just above them. As the sound caught up to the jets, John looked through the scope, and took his shot. The batarian's head exploded, his brain matter and blood spraying on the wrecked A-61. The other batarian dropped his cigarette, raising his weapon in panic. But before the other batarian could react further, John shot him too; piercing the batarian's head with devastating effect.

After the batarians had fallen to the ground, Han laughed quietly, patting John on his shoulder.

"Excellent aim, my friend! You're a natural hunter." The older soldier said, smiling while looking at the kill John had done. After a few moments, the two soldiers suddenly saw a Kodiak shuttle, used by the batarians; fly over them, landing nearby. Han looked around, and grabbed an M-9 Tempest submachine gun from the ground.

"Time to move in for another kill, Shepard. That shuttle brought their leader right to us." Han stated, starting to move off the fountain. John followed his new comrade.

"How do you know?" He asked the older man. Han huffed a little, as he vaulted over the edge of the fountain, starting to move low, towards the shuttle landing area.

"As a sniper, you learn to pay special attention to your surroundings, Shepard. That shuttle was too 'fancy' for regular pirate grunts like these; it had to be the personal shuttle of their leader. Trust me." Han explained, continuing to crouch walk through the ruined parts of Illyria's centre.

After a few minutes, the pair of Alliance marines arrived at an elevated section in the central market district, overlooking the center of the place, where the shuttle had landed. Han directed John to prone down on an opening, overlooking directly at the market place. He himself crouched nearby, scouting ahead of the area.

The whole area was filled with dozens of batarian and vorcha troopers walking around, looting almost anything they'd find. The batarian leader was standing near his shuttle, talking to a couple of his subordinates.

"Alright, Shepard. See the batarian leader there? He's your target." Han ordered, looking at the area in front of them. John placed the sniper rifle on the ground, looking through the scope of it, placing the batarian leader in his crosshairs.

"Okay, now… we'll do it like this; I will go down there, and create a distraction. As the soldiers are busy on attacking me, you'll take out their leader." Han suggested. After that, John raised his eyebrow, looking at the older soldier.

"What kind of a distraction?" He asked, being a bit suspicious. Han didn't look at him; instead he was still staring at the area in front of the older man.

"Don't worry about that, my friend. Just be ready to take the shot, when I raise my right hand like this." Han instructed, raising his right hand as a demonstration. John nodded in acknowledgment. After that, Han checked his submachine gun's ammo, and started to make his way down. John interrupted him though.

"Wait, Han. Can you answer one question..?" He asked. The older soldier stopped, looking at him.

"Why didn't you stay in Norway? I thought you said being a ranger was the best thing you had experienced?" John asked curiously. Han smiled slightly, nodding his head, clearly in his own thoughts. He then glanced at the young sergeant.

"Let's just say some things make it hard to stay at the place you once called home, Shepard." Han said mysteriously. After that, the older soldier jumped down from the ledge, immediately rushing to cover, preparing for a surprise attack.

John in the meanwhile overlooked what Han was doing, in his covered position. Han, waited for a moment, before suddenly rushing away from his cover, towards the batarians and vorcha, spraying his submachine gun at them.

Before they even knew what was going on, Han was able to take down a couple of batarians and vorcha, in his assault. His advantage turned the other way around really quickly though, as the batarians reacted. Han stopped running, and continued shooting at the enemy, but in a couple of seconds, the batarians had counterattacked, and shot him many times. Han fell down on the ground, not moving at all.

John tried his very best not to give away his position, and go help his comrade. He didn't even know if Han was still alive, let alone capable of signaling him, when to take the shot. Most of the batarians and vorcha in the area approached Han's unmoving body.

"Make sure the human is dead." The batarian captain shouted from his position.

As the soldiers were right around Han, John noticed him raising his right hand, giving the signal. Without hesitation, John looked through the scope, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger.

The shot was accurate, piercing the batarian captain's head, spraying his brains out of the back of his head. As the other soldiers looked at their dead captain, being dumbfounded by what had just happened; Han suddenly grabbed a frag grenade from his belt, activating it. One of the batarians saw that.

"Grenade!" The soldier yelled, but he was too late.

Including the grenade in his hand, all the other ones in Han's belt detonated too, engulfing the surprised batarians and vorcha in a sea of flames. After the explosion died, the surrounding area was just a black, smoking crater. John couldn't hold himself anymore.

"Han!" He yelled, as he just had witnessed his newfound mentor killing himself with a dozen of batarians and vorcha.

His outcry didn't go unnoticed, as one of the batarian lieutenants saw him.

"There! Kill the sniper!" The batarian shouted at the remaining soldiers, who were still alive.

The soldiers immediately opened fire, with one vorcha raising an M-77 missile launcher, shooting it directly at John.

"Oh shit!" John exclaimed, as the projectile flew at him. In a second, John got up on his feet, and rushed away from his position, glowing blue energy forming a defensive barrier around him.

The missile exploded right behind John, throwing him violently down on the ground in front of him. Fortunately the biotic barrier absorbed most of the impact, so John was able to get up immediately, and continue running away. The batarian lieutenant was not happy with the results of his orders.

"Damn it! Go after him! Every human soldier we see is dead!" The batarian shouted angrily, making his subordinates to pick up the pace, and rush after fleeing John.

At the same time above the orbit of Elysium, a large Alliance task force fleet was approaching the flaming city of Illyria. Captain David Anderson stood on the bridge of SSV Liverpool, an Alliance cruiser he commanded. Anderson was leading the task force to repel the batarian invaders, in cooperation with Captain Sommers, who commanded the SSV Paris. With those two cruisers, were one fighter carrier, the SSV Etna, and three Alliance frigates, SSV Peleliu, SSV Kursk and the SSV Bulge.

Anderson sat on his seat, overlooking the bridge of the Liverpool. The 49 year old Alliance captain scratched the back of his head, seemingly being worried.

"Full speed ahead! We need to get to Illyria ASAP." Anderson ordered. His bridge crew complied, increasing the speed of the war cruiser.

"Dear God, let him be alright." Anderson said quietly, hoping his protégé, John, to still be alive.

John breathed fast, covering behind the base of a statue of a Greek hoplite soldier. He had an M-15 Vindicator assault rifle in his hands, waiting to be fired. His hands were shaking; he had no idea how long it would take for the approaching enemies to figure out his hiding spot.

The remaining batarians and vorcha patrolled around in front of John, who was behind cover. The batarian lieutenant was getting impatient.

"Find him! He has to be here somewhere!" The batarian pushed his subordinates around. The batarian soldiers looked around, trying to find John, while the vorcha just huffed and puffed, and sniffed the air.

John took a deep breath, thinking that this might be his end. He squeezed the rifle in his hand, and emerged from his cover, pulling the trigger. The weapon had malfunctioned though, not firing anything. John stood there, speechlessly looking at the batarians and vorcha, who were staring at him.

After a second, John rushed back into his cover, as the enemy soldiers opened fire. The incoming bullets ripped the statue full of holes, pinning John down where he stood. He threw the defective rifle away, frustratingly thinking of options.

The batarian lieutenant ordered his men to cease fire.

"You're wasting ammo, just go there and finish him off!" The lieutenant ordered. After that, all the soldiers started to advance towards John's cover, their guns at the ready to shoot.

John squeezed his hands into fists, blue energy starting to form around him. He had only one chance, one choice, one option.

As the batarians and vorcha approached the statue, suddenly John emerged from behind the statue again, the blue energy engulfing his entire body. Before the enemy could open fire, John released all the power and energy he could, forming a huge wave of dark energy shooting out of him.

The wave of destructive energy tore the batarians and vorcha apart, tearing their skin off their bones, vaporizing their organs inside. The batarian lieutenant met the same fate, his body torn to shreds by John's powerful biotic attack.

After that exhausting attack, John panted heavily, dropping on his knees. He had used all his energy in that one biotic attack, and now he felt like fainting.

Before he could even catch his breath, an A-61 Mantis gunship appeared in front of him, having its spotlight pointed towards the exhausted soldier.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" John said weakly, not believing his bad luck.

The tired soldier spread his arms wide, accepting his defeat, and waiting for the gunship to open fire. Having his eyes closed, John got surprised why he didn't feel anything, when he heard the sound of machineguns firing. As he opened his eyes, John saw the gunship twirl around out of control, three Alliance fighters flying over it.

The gunship crashed soon, and John could only look in surprise, as dozens of Alliance fighters descended on the city, attacking the batarian targets in sight. Many Alliance gunships and Kodiak shuttles also appeared, flying to different parts of the city. Lastly John could see several Alliance warships opening fire on the batarian pirate's frigates, destroying them in a manner of seconds.

John sat down, watching the skies, as the Alliance vessels slowly descended towards the city of Illyria, eliminating the batarian resistance. He sighed in relief; he had survived this fight, and would live to tell about it.

John wiped his dirty forehead, taking a deep breath. He was too exhausted to do anything, and not long after that, he fainted, his vision turning black and empty.

**Seven hours later…**

John opened his eyes slowly, still being tired and weak. A bright light blinded his eyes, making him close them tightly, before slowly opening them again. As he looked around, John could see he was in a medical wing on some Alliance ship; he could see the empty void of space outside of a window.

As John looked to the other direction, he could see Anderson walking towards him, wearing his clean captain's uniform. His guardian smiled, as he walked next to John's bed.

"Hi there, John. Feelin' alright?" Anderson asked, smiling. John sighed quietly, taking a deep breath.

"Truth to be told; I'm lucky to lay on this bed right now… it was a slaughter down there." John explained. Anderson nodded his head quietly, sitting down on a chair laid next to the bed.

"Yes… it wasn't a pretty sight. Illyria got decimated by the attack." Anderson said quietly. John sighed again, closing his eyes.

"I lost my entire squad… Jefferson, Maline, Westen, Jensen, and Kubica… all good men… now gone." He said quietly, sighing and masking his face with his hands. Anderson placed his hand on John's shoulder, understanding the young sergeant's pain.

"I know it's hard, John… I've been there. You never get used to losing your men and women; it shapes you as an officer every time it happens. But, John… we have no other choice than try to move on, and give our fallen brothers and sisters peace they deserve. They're in a better place now, John… even though I know you don't believe in such things." Anderson comforted, smiling slightly at his protégé and ward. John sighed deeply, and then nodded his head, returning a small smile to his former guardian.

"Well, John… I hope this one surprise will make you feel a bit better." Anderson stated, getting up from the chair, and walking a bit away, signaling someone to come over.

John raised his eyebrow, not knowing what to expect. Then his eyes widened, as he saw his sister, Jane, walk to Anderson. Jane wore an Alliance officer uniform, being trained in the Alliance Intelligence forces. She had dyed a couple of strands of her black hair red. John couldn't believe his eyes, as he saw his dear sister approach him, smiling widely.

"Johnny." Jane said happily, as she embraced her brother tightly. John's eyes filled with tears.

"Oh Jane… I almost didn't make it… I'm so sorry…" John said, tears rolling down his cheeks. Jane shook her head, and wiped the tears off her brother cheeks, and kissed his forehead.

"No, Johnny… don't be sorry. No one could've known this would happen. I'm just so grateful you're still here with me." Jane said, tightly pressing her brother against her again.

Anderson smiled; as he saw the siblings reunite. They hadn't seen each other for almost a year, as John had been sent for tours of duty around Alliance space.

John and Jane continued to embrace each other, not wanting to let each other go for a while. Now John really was thankful for surviving; he couldn't fathom the thought of not coming back for his beloved sister. Even though he didn't believe in such things as Gods and spirits; he prayed that he wouldn't ever have to leave Jane alone in this Galaxy.

****Okay, so here's chapter three for you guys!**

**So, one of the biggest changes of course is, that Skyllian Blitz is a widespread armed conflict in my story, rather than a single attack on Elysium in the game.**

**Some of you have probably also wondered, why I use ME3 era weapons already. The reason is that in my story those weapons have already been introduced, and that they use limited ammunition, not cooling down, or changeable thermal clips. I always found that a bit silly in the games.**

**If you're a sharp fellow, you can probably notice the introduction of the chapter is inspired from Call of Duty: World at War's first Soviet mission; Vendetta, which in turn was inspired from the movie Enemy at the Gates. **

**Also, I originally thought of using the title "Lion of Elysium" as the chapter title for this, as well as one of Shepard's aliases, but I thought that enough people have used it already, first one being InHarmsWay/Harms1, I believe, so I give credit to him for creating the title. Instead of that, I decided to use "Avenger of Elysium" as the title, and as the alias. **

**And also, if you guys want to see John's training and living during the five years, which I jumped over now, just let me know in the reviews or PM's, and I'll include some scenes of them as flashbacks, later in the story.**

**Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and please do give me those reviews. It helps me keep track of which you like, and dislike. I only aim to please you, my dear readers. Have fun!****


	5. Chapter 4: The Siege of Torfan

**Chapter 4: The Siege of Torfan**

A sudden bump in the ground made an M21Roosevelt armored transport car jump a bit, rocking the inside of the APC. John opened his eyes, as the transport's suspensions took the sudden hit from the bump. The 23 year old Alliance soldier looked around the cabin, seeing his subordinates sitting around him.

It had been a year after the attack on Elysium. John had been awarded a Medal of Honor, as well as the Star of Terra, one of the most distinguished medals awarded to Alliance soldiers. John had no idea why he was awarded either medal, he had not done anything heroic, but the Alliance thought differently. John was the only survivor in the Alliance forces that faced off the batarian attack on Illyria.

After Elysium, John had taken part in a small retaliation attack on a batarian pirate base, located on a small space port in the Attican Traverse. After that battle, John had been offered a surprising, and amazing opportunity; he had been offered to join the ranks of N7 soldiers. Such an offer had taken John by a surprise; had he never even thought of being asked for such a tremendous honor. John did think to himself, that Anderson had something to do with the surprising offer.

For the next several months, John had spent all his time in N7 training, which exceeded everything he had ever done before. But through hard work and devoted commitment, John had survived with perfect grades, putting many other N7 recruits to shame.

After passing the demanding training, John had been appointed as second in command in an elite squad of Alliance N7 soldiers, who were tasked to do raids on several batarian pirate ships, and bases.

Now they were on Torfan, a small barren world, believed to be the main stronghold for the batarian pirates, who had harassed human and turian colonies for a year. The Alliance forces had been there for a day already, but John's squad of N7 elites was called in for help, since the Alliance had problems finishing off the batarian forces.

As John looked around the cabin of the transport, one of his squadmates; Drew Tyler, spoke up.

"You a bit distracted there, lieutenant?" The Afro-American N7 soldier asked. John looked at his subordinate, sharing a slight smile.

"Nothing to get worried about, corporal" John answered. With that, Drew nodded his head, and looked away. The N7 soldier sitting next to Drew; Charlie McKnight, scratched the back of his head.

"Man, I dunno... this mission doesn't just feel right." The white light brown haired soldier stated. Drew nudged his companion's shoulder.

"C'mon, dude. This'll be just another mission we've done a dozen times." The young corporal assured, patting his comrade's shoulder.

The soldier sitting next to John, a Canadian; Kaidan Alenko, nudged his commanding officer's shoulder, getting John's attention.

"You think they're not telling everything to us, John?" Kaidan asked. John shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, Kaidan… but this definitely is not going to be a regular mission, I think…" John said.

John and Kaidan had known each other for a long time, having had met in the training school for biotic humans, over five years ago. The two men had formed a companionship during the training, helping each other out in many things. After training in biotics, John and Kaidan had went on separate ways, Kaidan seeking to train his biotic and tech abilities further, while John joined the regular Alliance marines.

When John had joined the N7 program, he had met Kaidan again, the Canadian soldier having had been made the same offer to join the prestigious elite forces. The two friends had luck, when they were appointed to the same squad.

The transport car came to a halt, signaling the squad inside that they had arrived to their destination. The backdoors of the transport vehicle opened, letting the squad to exit the car, and step outside to the rocky and dusty ground of Torfan's terrain.

As the four man squad exited the transport, setting their feet on the ground, John took point, and signaled his men to follow him. The squad headed towards a nearby M6 Lincoln main battle tank, where Captain Anderson and General Hawkings were waiting.

The M6 Lincoln was one of the last tracked vehicles still used by human militaries. It looked like a combination of the M1 Abrams tank, used by the US in the 20th and 21th century, and the British Chieftain tank, used in the 20th century. The tank was widely used by Earth's militaries, since it was very fast, and effective in combat.

A bit of a distance away from the tank, were stationed the Alliance artillery positions, with several M899 howitzers, firing on the batarian stronghold ahead. John walked to Captain Anderson and General Hawkings, his squad following him closely.

"Lieutenant Shepard. Good to see you well and kicking." General Hawkings greeted, shaking John's hand. Anderson smiled and also shook his hand.

"Good to see you, John." Anderson said friendly, John smiling back at him.

"Good to see you too, sir." John said, after which Anderson let out a quiet laugh.

"Now now, John… you don't have the permission to call me "sir"." Anderson said, nudging his former ward's shoulder.

"Alright then, Anderson" John answered, laughing a bit. After that, the general spoke up again.

"Okay, gentlemen, if you care to look over in that direction, you'll see why we have called you here." General Hawkings said, pointing towards the batarian stronghold in the distance, being surrounded by a blue energy shield, which looked like it was straight from a sci-fi movie like Star Wars or Star Trek. McKnight almost choked on his own swallow, as he saw the stronghold.

"That's our objective?" The young N7 soldier asked. Hawkings nodded his head.

"That's right, we haven't been able to penetrate that shield, even though we've pounded it with our howitzers for the past day." The general explained. Anderson nodded.

"You will need to infiltrate the compound, and bring down the shield, after which we'll commence the attack." Anderson said. John couldn't help but raise his eyebrow, as he watched how the artillery shells were absorbed by the powerful ray shield.

After that, a Kodiak shuttle suddenly approached them in the air, quickly landing near them. The shuttle's doors opened, after which another N7 operative, in a different kind of armor, stepped outside.

"You guys ready to rock?" The N7 soldier asked.

The soldier was John's squad leader, Commander Kai Leng, from the N7 Blade Division. The Blade Division was a special division formed in the N7 ranks, to train a few selected N7 operatives in the ancient ways of Japanese and Chinese swordplay, as well as martial arts. Kai Leng was one of the few selected N7 soldiers that were offered to join in the specialized training course. After graduating, Leng had became one of the most well trained and experienced N7 operatives, skilled in many martial arts, as well as the handling of the iconic Japanese sword, the Katana.

Leng approached his squad, shaking hands with John.

"Hope you're ready for some sneaking, Shepard." Leng said to his lieutenant. John smirked a little, and nodded his head.

"You can bet on it, Commander." He answered. Leng nodded and patted John's shoulder, turning his attention to Anderson and Hawkings.

"Commander Leng reporting for duty, sirs!" Leng said, saluting both of his superiors. Both Anderson and Hawkings nodded; the General then shaking hands with the Asian commander.

"Good to have you with us, Commander. This mission is dangerous, so your men will have to be vigilant and ready for anything." Hawkings said. Leng nodded, smirking lightly.

"My squad is the best damn squad in the N7; we'll get the job done." Leng boasted, being sure of his squad's skills. Anderson cut in.

"You don't have much time, and be very careful in there, you won't have any reinforcements. " The captain told. Leng nodded in acknowledgement, then turning to his squad.

"Alright, Havoc squad, move out!" Leng ordered, signaling his squadmates to board the shuttle.

The five elite soldiers boarded the Kodiak shuttle, sitting on the cabin's seats. The shuttle closed its doors, and immediately turned on its repulsion engines, making the military shuttle ascend vertically in the air, after which the back engines of the shuttle came to life, and pushed the shuttle forwards.

As the shuttle flew above them, towards the batarian stronghold, Anderson and Hawkings shared a glance.

"They'll be okay, Anderson… they're experienced." Hawkings assured. Anderson, who had seen John get into danger earlier already, wasn't as sure.

"Let's hope so…" The 50 year old Alliance captain said quietly, watching the shuttle flying towards the infiltration landing zone.

**20 minutes later… **

The Havoc squad had arrived at their destination; the outskirts of the batarian stronghold. Commander Leng escorted his squad to a seemingly abandoned backdoor of the compound.

"Alright, this entrance should be abandoned, and not shielded." Leng said, approaching the door, and activating it, sliding the old dusty door open.

"Kinda weird for batarians just to leave an entrance unprotected like this, while the rest of the stronghold is heavily shielded." McKnight wondered, looking around the place, his M-15 Vindicator assault rifle ready.

"Dude, batarians are dumb as fuck… no wonder they'd forget about something like this." Tyler said, cocking his M-23 Katana shotgun.

John too wondered how the batarians could be so careless. He smelled something wrong with this. As the five-man squad entered the compound, the immediately noticed that the entrance was indeed abandoned, since there wasn't anything around but junk and discarded junk.

After walking inside the empty hallways of the abandoned entryway, the Havoc squad came across many empty jail cells, which were assumingly used to house prisoners the batarian pirates would've captured.

After a couple of moments the squad arrived to a larger room, being empty, as expected. The room had a little hallway with two closed airlocks. Leng walked to the first one, opening it, and signaling John and the rest of the squad to follow.

As John and Kaidan walked in the hallway, both of the airlocks suddenly sealed themselves off. Now John and Kaidan were trapped inside the small hallway, while Leng was on the other side of the second airlock, and McKnight and Tyler in the large room still.

As Leng banged on the airlock, John tried to look for consoles that would open the sealed doors. Suddenly a sound of a loudspeaker turning on got the soldiers' attention.

"Humans! Welcome to your doom!" A batarian voice declared, a little too cheery.

"Oh great…" Kaidan said quietly. John raised his eyebrows, looking at the loudspeaker. Tyler and McKnight moved around the large room, looking for ways to exit, but the hallway they had arrived from was sealed shut too.

"You thought we wouldn't see you barging into our home? You think us batarians idiots, while it's you humans, who lack common sense!" The batarian said through the loudspeaker.

John and Kaidan glanced at each other, not sure what to make of this situation.

"How we'll get out of this, John?" Kaidan asked, looking at the lieutenant. John shook his head.

"I have no idea, sergeant…" John answered, looking through the airlock window to the room where McKnight and Tyler were still figuring out a way out.

"Now you have walked into our trap, humans! You two in the lobby will be excellent test subjects for our new weapon!" The batarian declared ominously. John didn't like the sound of that.

Suddenly two hatches opened on the walls in the large room. Tyler and McKnight got ready, but neither of them would've been prepared to see what came next.

A startling sound of growling and howling was heard inside the dark shafts, and from them, creeped out several monsters. The monstrous things were batarians, but changed; they had countless mechanical parts added into them, their skin was pale and drained, their four eyes glowing blue. It looked like all of the meat around their bones had been removed, replaced by tubes and other synthetic parts surrounding their bones. They quite literally were husks of their former bodies.

"What the fuck?!" Tyler exclaimed, as he saw the batarian monsters approach him and McKnight.

McKnight raised his rifle, and started spraying bullets at the husks in panic, not doing much damage. The husks charged at the two human soldiers, trying to rip the soldiers to shreds with their claws.

John and Kaidan looked in horror through the window. Tyler shot a batarian husk with his shotgun, completely blowing of the monster's head. For the next moments, the two N7 soldiers shot all of their ammunition at the advancing monsters, but after one died, two more appeared from the shaft. The two humans were soon overrun by the husks.

McKnight tried to fight his way to the airlock, but was grabbed by two husks. One of the monsters opened its gaping mouth, and sunk its teeth into McKnight's neck. As the young human screamed in agony and fear, a dozen of the monsters overwhelmed him, and ripped his armor apart.

John and Kaidan looked in horror as their comrade was ripped to pieces by the monsters. Tyler continued fighting off the husks, but one of them jumped on his back, grabbing the human's head, and sinking its teeth into his face. Other husks quickly grabbed Tyler as well, and the corporal was also eaten alive.

John banged on the airlock in agony and anger.

"No! No! God damn it!" John shouted, punching the door with his fist. Kaidan grabbed his shoulder.

"John, we need to get out of here!" Kaidan shouted, trying to pull John away from the door. Leng looked around the room he was in, hastily trying to contain the situation.

"Fuck! Okay, Alenko and Shepard! Try to get here, I'll go and find the bastard who did this!" Leng shouted behind the door, and after that, quickly rushed away through the hallway behind him, drawing his sword from the sheath on his back.

John clenched his hands into fists, and ragingly punched the wall next to him with a biotic force. The punch revealed circuit boards and other cords in the wall, which miraculously opened the other airlock. As Kaidan saw the door opening, he grabbed John's arm.

"Come on! Let's get out of here!" Kaidan yelled, pulling his companion with him.

John hated himself for doing so, but he had no other choice, but to run away from the deathtrap with his comrade. The two soldiers ran to the same hallway their commander had gone just a minute ago. His two subordinates were gone, he couldn't change it… but he could avenge their gruesome death.

John and Kaidan ran in the many hallways of the enemy stronghold, seeing many recently killed batarian soldiers, lying dead on the floor. Their bodies had many stab wounds on them, so clearly Leng had been doing the killing.

After few moments, the two Alliance soldiers arrived in another large room, having two separate hallways in it. As John and Kaidan looked around, trying to figure out which way to go, John's omni-tool beeped, signaling him that someone was calling. John activated the holographic tool, and saw that Leng tried to contact him.

"Shepard, Leng here. I'm chasing the batarian leader through the compound; he won't get away from me. You and Alenko go through the left hallway; it'll lead to the central war room, the other batarian leaders must be there. Go there and finish them off, I'm sure the shield generator is there too. Leng out, good luck!" Leng told through the holographic multi tool.

"Copy that." John answered, closing the omni-tool. After that, the lieutenant looked at his comrade.

"Come on, Kaidan. Let's go knock the shield off." John ordered. Kaidan nodded his head in acknowledgment, and started following John, who ran into the left hallway.

Kai Leng ran behind a batarian soldier, who ominously ran towards a dead end. Leng had no idea what the batarian was trying, but whatever the four-eyed alien had in mind, the Asian N7 elite could adapt.

As the batarian ran to the dead end, he stopped. Leng stopped a bit of a distance away from him, drawing his sword.

"End of the line, scum." Leng remarked angrily. The batarian laughed, and turned to face his human adversary.

"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? But in truth, human… you've walked right into my trap." The batarian said, smirking deviously. Leng raised his eyebrow, and readied himself.

Suddenly dozens of strands of lightning shot out of the walls around Leng, shocking his whole body. Not being able to do anything, Leng was quickly incapacitated, falling on the ground, unconscious.

The batarian soldier walked over to his fallen enemy, laughing quietly.

"Such idiocy…" The batarian said, looking at the incapacitated N7 soldier.

John and Kaidan arrived to the central war room, their N7 Valkyrie assault rifles ready. The two human soldiers ran in, immediately aiming their weapons at the batarian soldier right in front of them, who was standing in front of a console. They quickly noticed being surrounded by five other batarians, aiming their weapons at the two N7 elites.

The situation was an impasse, for John and Kaidan, as well as the batarians; no one was shooting, just pointing their guns at each other. The batarian soldier right in front of the two humans lifted his head, looking at his enemies, holding his hands behind his back.

"Well… I didn't think you'd get this far… though I suppose the sword loving fellow pretty much cleared the way for you." The batarian leader said. John and Kaidan glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows.

"How did you like our demonstration?" The batarian asked. That got John boiling with anger.

"What the hell were those things!?" John demanded. The batarian leader smirked, and moved aside, revealing an odd looking synthetic artifact behind him.

"A gift from this item we uncovered here." The batarian explained, presenting the artifact to the two humans.

The artifact was shaped oddly, beating blue energy out of it. John couldn't help but glue his eyes on it, every time the blue energy pulse happened. What was that device? And where did it come from?

"What is that?" Kaidan asked, looking at the artifact. The batarian shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows? Who cares? The main point is that it has given us power beyond our imagination… power which you've partially seen already." The batarian said. John growled quietly.

"Who are you even? Are you the leader of the batarian pirates who attacked Elysium?" John asked demandingly. The batarian smiled deviously.

"I am Harto'hie Molak. Former General in the Batarian Hegemony's armed forces, currently unemployed… or… kind of." Molak said, laughing a bit. John sighed in frustration.

"Do you have any idea how many humans have died because of this conflict?" He asked angrily. Molak laughed, and shook his head.

"Clearly not enough, since you humans still crawl around this galaxy!" Molak said, his eyes filled with hatred towards humanity. As John was about to shoot back at the batarian, the mysterious artifact began to pulsate more rapidly. That drew the attention of John and Kaidan, as well as all of the batarians. Molak turned to the artifact.

"Well, looky here! It seems like our benefactors don't like this interruption you've done." Molak stated. John and Kaidan glanced at each other again, both thinking what the batarian meant with "benefactors".

As Molak turned back to look at the artifact, it suddenly shot out a huge wave of blue energy, which blinded everyone in the room.

As John staggered from the shot off energy, he saw terrifying images of destruction and slaughter in his mind. He couldn't make out what the images where about, but he could definitely tell they were about horrible things.

As John opened his eyes, he and Kaidan were on their knees, not sure what had just happened. All the batarians except Molak were kneeling too, being overwhelmed by the energy that shot at them.

Molak turned at the two human soldiers, raising his arms.

"Did you see it, humans? Our benefactors will bring justice to this galaxy, and wipe you from the face of it!" Molak stated loudly. John and Kaidan stood up, and again raised their weapons, but now both aiming at Molak. The batarian leader could only smile in an evil manner.

"Such defiance, almost batarian…" Molak said, smirking at the two humans.

Before John and Kaidan could do anything, the mysterious artifact pulsated again, but this time affecting only Molak. The batarian started twisting violently, his body beginning to smoke. The batarians blood veins lit on fire, engulfing Molak's whole body in flames. The batarian yelled in agony, a yellow glow surrounding him. John and Kaidan looked in horror as the batarian leader exploded into flames.

After a few seconds, John opened his eyes again. As John and Kaidan both looked at Molak again, they could only open their mouth in disbelief. Molak was standing at one place, his eyes closed, and his whole body smoking from the flames earlier.

The batarian opened his four eyes, which were now glowing brightly in yellow. John and Kaidan both raised their eyebrows. The batarian soldiers beside Molak seemed to be dumbfounded and in fear as well. Molak smiled deviously, his eyes glowing yellow.

"What a disappointment, this one… I expected more from him" Molak said in a low metallic, almost demonic voice. John could immediately tell that Molak wasn't himself anymore.

"Two humans… a recent and surprising addition to the galactic community." Molak said in the metallic voice. Kaidan breathed faster.

"I don't like this at all, John…" He said quietly. John couldn't help but agree, this definitely wasn't something he was prepared for.

"Curious to see you humans rise up in the galactic society… I do believe you are an extraordinary race… such genetic variability." Molak said, his yellow eyes glowing brighter. John swallowed quietly.

"Who are you..?" He asked carefully. Molak smiled a bit.

"That is a question you'll have an answer for soon enough…" The changed batarian said in the demonic voice.

Before John could say anything more, Molak turned around, looking at the artifact.

"Surprising that the batarians found this… I would've hoped someone more… civilized founded it… but… nevertheless, they were useful… for a time." The possessed batarian explained. Kaidan was losing his nerves, pointing his assault rifle at Molak.

"Just tell us who you are!" The young human demanded; his finger ready on the trigger. Molak smirked, and spread his arms wide.

"Behold the true power we hold." The batarian said, smirking deviously.

Suddenly the artifact sprung to life again, pulsating blue energy around. Out of nowhere, several light beams shot out of the artifact, impaling all of the batarian soldiers in the room. All the unsuspecting batarians fell over dead on the floor, smoke coming out of their charred chests, after the beam of light vanished.

John and Kaidan looked around, being dumbfounded of what just had happened. Molak stood there, looking at the two humans with his yellow glowing eyes.

"That is true power, right there… and we hold it." Molak said, in the metallic voice.

John and Kaidan quickly glanced at each other, and nodded. After that, the two N7 soldiers aimed their rifles at the possessed batarian and opened fire. The bullets pierced Molak's body, spewing out fire. The bullets which went straight through the batarian, hit the artifact behind him, making it pulsate uncontrollably.

"Such arrogance…" Molak said, as the bullets did nothing to him.

John and Kaidan ceased their fire, as they saw it did nothing to their enemy. But before they could think of another strategy, the artifact began to behave oddly. Molak smiled deviously, as the artifact suddenly exploded behind him, engulfing the batarian's body in the shockwave. John and Kaidan got hit by the explosion too, both immediately losing their consciousness.

Outside the compound, the Alliance forces had closed in. Anderson stood by a squad of marines, being backed by a dozen M6 Lincolns, as well as many M35 Makos.

Suddenly the persistent ray shield disappeared, as the apparent command centre in the stronghold building exploded. After Anderson saw that, the comlink from the comm. specialist in the nearby squad sprung to life.

"The shield is down! Begin the attack!" General Hawkings' voice shouted. Anderson nodded, and signaled the armored battalion to advance.

"All forces! Attack!" The veteran soldier yelled.

After that, the entire Alliance force began their attack. The tanks opened fire with their powerful cannons, the infantry ran fast towards the stronghold's perimeter, their rifles and other weapons at the ready. Anderson charged in with the rest of the soldiers, his trustful M-6 Carnifex heavy pistol at the ready.

**15 minutes later…**

John opened his eyes slowly, feeling pain in his back. He could hear sounds of gunfire coming nearby, as well as many sounds of explosions, which also shook the ground a bit.

He looked around, coughing a bit of dust from his mouth. John saw Kaidan lying near him, under some rubble. The whole war room had exploded and collapsed. John also noticed that he had a piece of rubble holding him down on the ground by his left leg.

As he tried to move, John could hear footsteps behind him. The young human looked to that direction, seeing a batarian stand near him, an M-77 Paladin pistol pointed straight to his head.

"Survived your little game, did you?" The batarian asked, pointing his gun at John. Before John could say anything, the batarian spoke up again.

"You humans are such a disappointment… that other soldier didn't offer any challenge either…" The batarian said. John clenched his teeth together; that batarian must've defeated Leng earlier.

As the batarian moved his finger on the pistol's trigger, smirking, his head suddenly exploded into bloody pieces. John gasped, as the batarian violently fell on the floor, dead.

After a second, John opened his eyes, seeing Anderson walk calmly to him, his M-6 Carnifex's barrel smoking. The 50 year old man crouched over to him, offering his hand.

"John, are you alright?" Anderson asked worriedly, grabbing John's hand, and pulling him out of the rubble.

"Yeah… yeah… I'm okay." John assured, taking a deep breath. After that, he looked at Kaidan, who lied on the floor unconscious. Anderson signaled a couple of marines to help Kaidan out of the rubble, and then carry him away to a med-evac.

After that, the veteran soldier patted John's shoulder.

"Okay, John… let's get out of here." Anderson said. John halted him, though.

"Wait… did you find Commander Leng anywhere?" He asked. Anderson shook his head.

"No, we've searched this whole compound for anything, and there hasn't been any trace of Kai Leng… we can only assume he's either K.I.A or M.I.A." Anderson explained. John nodded quietly.

"I see… McKnight and Tyler died too… to those… things" John said quietly. Anderson nodded.

"Yeah… we saw them too… horrible monsters, I have no idea how the batarians got a hold of this kind of technology… I've never seen it before." Anderson wondered quietly. John agreed, nodding, though not exactly wanting to know.

Anderson placed his hand on John's shoulder, and started to escort him out of the stronghold. John sighed deeply, thinking how brutal this battle had been, and also how terrifying the encounter with the unknown enemy had been.

**Two days later…**

John walked on an empty hallway on the SSV Liverpool, cruising slowly with the rest of the Alliance 4th fleet, in the Sol system. As he walked, John could see through the window the barren planet Saturn go slowly by the ship, its rings shaped perfectly circular.

John walked to a closed door, activating the console beside it, which opened the door. As he walked in, John saw Kaidan sitting on a medical bed, his left arm wrapped in bandages.

"Hey there, Staff Sergeant… feelin' ok?" John asked his comrade, sitting beside Kaidan on a chair. Kaidan nodded, smiling.

"Sure, John… a little explosion won't take me down." The human sergeant answered. John tapped Kaidan's shoulder.

"Glad to hear it, Kaidan." He said, sharing a friendly smile with his squadmate.

After a few short moments, Kaidan shared a rather worried look with John.

"Did you see anything… when that strange artifact shot out its energy?" Kaidan asked, looking uncomfortable. John nodded slowly.

"Yes… I saw… something horrible… I don't know what, but I know it was terrible." He answered, looking down a bit. Kaidan nodded.

"Yeah… I saw something like that too… what in the world was it even?" The sergeant asked. John shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know… but nothing good, that's for sure…" John said quietly, trying to figure out what the mysterious artifact was, that possessed Molak.

The two soldiers then stayed quiet, pondering over the things they experienced on Torfan, which marked the end of the Skyllian Blitz.

****Okay, so here's chapter four!**

**So, you noticed both Kaidan and Kai Leng were in this. I decided to change Kaidan's background, so that he and John could have a bigger history together, since I like to think they'd be old friends during ME1. **

**I made Kai Leng a specialist, a veteran, and a confident soldier in the N7. He didn't die, obviously, but you won't hear from him for some time now. Speculate what happened to him after this. **

**Also, yes, that was Harbinger which possessed Molak. The thought of batarians possessing Reaper technology has always been kind of a center point in the ME series, especially in ME3. The batarian husks are *not* cannibals, they're more like human husks, only batarian. **

**As always, let me know in the reviews, what you thought about this chapter. Stay tuned for more soon! We're closing in on ME1!** **


	6. Chapter 5: The Normandy

**Chapter 5: The Normandy**

_26th of April, 2183. _

_The boring life on the Arcturus Station continues to make every day I live a chore. I do nothing but file a report, after report, after report. I never thought I'd miss the life of warfare; at least I did something that mattered then. _

_After the Blitz, I got transferred into Anderson's crew on the SSV Liverpool, and acted as a supervising security officer with Kaidan. An N7 soldier as a regular security officer on a ship is not quite what I signed up for._

_After seven months of work on the Liverpool, I got transferred to Arcturus. I was assigned to train new biotic recruits, and also retrain my own abilities. _

_I hear that Anderson and Admiral Hackett signed a commendation for me to be promoted to Commander. I'm not sure if being promoted to a Commander would change anything about my desk job, but a raise in the salary is always welcome. _

_About four weeks ago, I received an offer from Anderson; he asked me to join the crew of his new ship, which will finish its construction in a few weeks time. Truthfully, I never thought I'd actually get the position of executive officer onboard an Alliance warship. The new ship is supposed to be cutting edge technology, a prototype of a new kind of frigate, jointly build by the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. I haven't heard much of it, only that it's a stealth frigate, used to do top secret and high end reconnaissance missions beyond the borders of Alliance and Citadel space. _

_Other things I've had to go through, is the ship's crew list. 51 crewmembers in total; those including my friend Kaidan Alenko, acting as the Marine Detail officer of the ship. _

_Surprisingly, the selected pilot for the ship is a man named Jeff Moreau, nicknamed "Joker" by his colleagues. I've looked his files, and he apparently suffers from Vrolik's syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, which makes the patient's bones very fragile. I've yet to see this brittle-boned pilot in action, but from what I've heard, he's one of the best in the Alliance. _

_The selected Chief Engineer is Lieutenant Greg Adams. His résumé is impressive, and I'm certain he'll be a tremendous asset to the ship's crew. _

_Doctor Karin Chakwas has been selected as the ship's Chief Medical Officer. I've been in her care a couple of times during the Blitz, and she seemed to be very professional and well trained. I'll be more than happy to have her as the caretaker of the ship's crew._

_The Chief Navigator has been selected to be Lieutenant Charles Pressly, a fellow veteran of the Skyllian Blitz. Pressly served onboard the SSV Agincourt, an Alliance frigate which saw plenty of action during the war, being one of the first ships to engage against a batarian fleet near Noveria, in the Horse Head Nebula. _

_The remainder of the crew is mostly fresh recruit cadets and ensigns from the Alliance navy. One of the new members of my strike team is a young private by the name of Richard L. Jenkins. The kid hasn't seen any combat action yet, but I'm hoping for the best, for his sake. I'd hate to see such an enthusiastic man lose his life in the first firefight we'll have…_

After finishing that sentence, John saved his log entry, and closed off the computer. The 25 year old human soldier sighed deeply, as he placed his hands on his face. After that, John got up from his chair, and walked over to his bed.

He lived in a small apartment, at the Arcturus Station. The apartment was only two rooms plus the bathroom, including the kitchen and the living room in one room, and the other John's living quarters, having his bed and personal computer there.

John sat on his bed, turning his face to look at the night table beside the bed. On the table was a small picture in a digital frame. John took the picture in his hands, and smiled, as he saw himself holding his sister Jane in it. The picture was taken at Jane's graduation day, over a year ago. John was hugging his sister in the picture, Jane having her arms wrapped around her brother. Both of them wore Alliance uniforms, Jane also wearing the iconic Alliance officer's cap. Remembering the graduation day made John smile, and feel warmth inside him.

His daydreaming was cut short, as John heard a knock on the door of his apartment. John put the picture back on the table, and stood up from the bed, walking from the bedroom to the door. John opened the door, and saw Anderson standing outside the apartment.

"Good day, John. Doing okay?" Anderson asked, smiling widely. John laughed quietly, leaning on the doorframe.

"Well, a little action once in a while wouldn't hurt." He stated. Anderson nodded understandingly.

"I bet, John. But don't worry, as soon as my ship is finished, you'll get plenty of action again." The veteran Alliance officer assured. John nodded.

"I hope so." He said. After that, Anderson seemed to remember something.

"Oh, speaking of that… I have something to show you." Anderson said signaling John to follow him. John raised his eyebrows in curiosity, putting his shoes on, and going out of the apartment, following Anderson.

The young man quickly caught up to his former guardian, walking beside him, passing by many Alliance personnel going by their everyday business. As John looked to his right, he could see dozens of Alliance ships either approaching the station, or leaving it. Many frigates and cruisers were also halted in positions, being the Arcturus Station's defense fleet.

After walking a few minutes, John's curiosity finally got the better of him.

"So, what are you going to show me?" John asked Anderson, who continued walking calmly.

"You'll see, it's in the hangar bay." Anderson answered, smirking a bit. John could guess what the thing would be; most likely Anderson's new ship, the ship John would also work on soon.

Soon enough, the two Alliance soldiers arrived to the auxiliary hangar bay area, consisting of 20 different hangars used as dry docks for ships. Anderson walked a bit ahead, arriving at a sealed door, and swiping his Alliance ID card on a console beside it. The door opened, and Anderson signaled John to follow him in.

After he got in, John was escorted up a flight of stairs by Anderson. The two arrived in a room, having a large window overlooking one of the hangars. The hangar was unlighted, and therefore quite dark, which made John unable to see what was in there.

As John walked next to Anderson, the older soldier activated a panel beside him. The panel turned on the lights in the hangar. As soon as the large hangar was lighted, John saw what Anderson brought him to see.

It really was Anderson's new ship, that John was seeing right now. The young human's eyes widened as he looked at the frigate. John had never seen such an elegant warship. The frigate was shaped very aerodynamically, making it one of the most extraordinary looking starships the 25 year old human had ever seen. John could only open his mouth in awe, as the ship shined in front of him. The name "Normandy SR-1" was written on the hull of it.

"Woah… is that your ship?" John asked in awe. Anderson laughed quietly, tapping John's shoulder.

"Yes. The SSV Normandy, not just my ship, John, but yours too… remember who will be my XO onboard it." Anderson said, smiling as he looked at his yet unfinished starship.

John could only stare at the ship, not believing he'd soon be serving on that very ship as its executive officer. He couldn't wait to be sent off to dangerous missions again, he wanted nothing more than be able to get into action again.

The two of them continued to look at the Normandy, being proud of soon serving on it.

**Two weeks later…**

The massive metal doors of hangar 12E on the Arcturus Station slowly screeched open. The dust particles parting from the doors quickly disappeared in the empty void of space. After the doors had slid aside, four powerful starship engines sprung to life, pushing air out in the vacuum outside the hangar. The Normandy's lights came to life, the whole ship turning itself on, like a complex machine.

On the ship's bridge, John was standing next to Anderson, who was overlooking the departure preparations the Normandy's pilot was making. Jeff Moreau, nicknamed Joker, pressed the dozens of holographic buttons on the ship's control console, activating different systems and programs.

"All systems are running optimal, Captain." Joker said, looking at the many holographic monitors put in front of him. Anderson nodded in acknowledgment.

"Well done, Flight Lieutenant. Undock the Normandy, and set the coordinates to 1.459/4.8977, Crescent Nebula." Anderson instructed, after which the human pilot nodded, and started working on the ship's controls.

The Normandy's engines powered up more, as the docking tube and clamps unattached themselves from the newly build frigate. The front of the engine wings powered up, and started to push the 90 meter long ship out of the large hangar. After the ship was out of the hangar, it turned around quickly; its frontal engines in the wings turning up to their normal positions, and powering down. The four engines of the frigate flashed brightly in blue light, pushing the ship forwards, its speed increasing quickly.

The technologically revolutionary warship flew past several Alliance cruisers and frigates, making the ships' crews to watch in awe, as the newest and finest Alliance ship flew past their workplaces.

Inside the ship, John stood beside Anderson, turning towards his superior officer.

"So, what's our first destination?" John asked. Anderson smiled, and placed his hand on John's shoulder.

"John, my boy… let's go see what the Galaxy has in store for us." The 52 year old Alliance captain said, smiling at his former ward. Joker chuckled quietly.

"Yeah… first thing we know the Normandy will be eaten by a giant Thresher Maw." The 24 year old human pilot said jokingly. Kaidan, who was sitting next to Joker, aiding him in controlling the ship, chirped in.

"Can it, Joker? The ship's pilot talking like that brings bad luck." The Canadian N7 operative said. Joker waved his hand in dismissal, not caring about bad omens.

"Expecting the worst is healthy, Kaidan; keeps you on your feet all the time." Joker explained, moving his hand on the holographic dashboard, swiping a few engine statistics away.

"And besides, Captain Anderson is the captain of this ship… so if he'd be the one to talk like that, it'd bring bad luck, not me." Joker continued, quickly adjusting the Alliance logoed baseball cap on his head. Anderson chuckled, and tapped the top of Joker's pilot seat.

"No Thresher Maws or batarian pirate ships will take this baby down, Joker." The captain reassured jokingly. After that, Joker leaned over to look at John.

"What do you think, Commander? Are we in danger?" The human pilot asked, smirking a bit.

John had been promoted to Commander just a week earlier, and he still had to get used to everyone calling him that. He didn't think he'd be able to reach the rank of a commander in such little time of service. John smirked back at the pilot, putting his arms on his waist.

"Only danger the Normandy has, is you breaking your arm, while hand wrestling with Kaidan, and flying the ship right into an asteroid." John said jokingly. Joker opened his mouth in surprise, laughing a bit.

"Ooohohoh! A brittle-bones joke, Commander? Oh man, I'm gonna love you." The pilot said, laughing, and turning back to his dashboard, continuing to operate the ship.

John smiled widely, he really felt like he had found his place, onboard this beautiful warship. Yeah, this was his place in the galaxy.

Outside in the vacuum of space, the Normandy broke the silence by flying fast past many little rocks and meteors, coming to a clearing from the Alliance fleet, and jumping to light speed in a quick flash.

A couple of days later, John stood up from a small hatch, located on the crew deck of the ship. He had checked the electricity cords, running beneath the floor of the deck, since the light in his sleeping pod had not been working. Being mechanically quite efficient, John was able to re-circuit the cords to also make his light work.

The 25 year old human soldier closed the service hatch, patting his hands together to disperse the dirt from them. After that, John made his way down the sleeping pod hallway, where most of the crew spent their nights in. Only Anderson had a private cabin to himself, and some of the other crewmembers lived in two small quarters, where multiple bunk beds facilitated for the servicemen and women.

As John walked to the mess area of the deck, he saw Kaidan sitting down in front of one of the tables, reading a book. John walked to his comrade, and sat down in front of him, on the opposite side of the table.

"Haven't seen one of those in a while now." John stated, pointing at the book Kaidan was reading. Books made out of paper had been in rapid decline for almost a century, digital books becoming the new standard in human society.

"Yeah, this belongs to my mom, actually. She has a large book collection at their house in Vancouver." Kaidan explained, looking at the book's covers. The book was titled "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. John assumed it was a classic.

"Is it an old book?" John asked, not been able to come across that book earlier.

"Yeah, it's almost 300 years old… though this is of course a re-published version, from 2125 I think." Kaidan said, looking at the back of the book. John nodded, placing his hands on the table in a pray looking manner.

"Is it good?" He asked. Kaidan smirked a bit, chuckling quietly.

"Well… I'm not really getting it; I guess it's too old for my comprehension." The human soldier said. John laughed a bit too.

"A familiar feeling, buddy. I can't even name all the books I've read, and not understood any of them." He said laughing. Kaidan smiled, and closed the book.

"Well, maybe I should stop reading this, before my brain boils from overworking." Kaidan said, smiling widely again. John laughed quietly.

"Probably wise." The young human commander stated.

After a moment, Kaidan looked at John.

"Wanna eat something? I can cook." He asked. John raised his eyebrows.

"You're not trying to poison me, are you?" John asked, smirking a bit. Kaidan laughed again.

"No, John. But I won't give ya any refunds, if you don't like it." John's companion said. John smiled, and stood up from the table.

"Well, in that case, I'm gonna help you out." John said, making his way over to the kitchen, Kaidan walking right behind him.

"Auh, now ain't this cute? We're like a family." Kaidan joked, John laughing as a response.

"A curious imagination you have, Lieutenant." John said, laughing quietly. Kaidan smirked cheekily.

"I try, Commander." He answered.

The two friends then began to prepare some food for each other.

**Three weeks later…**

Anderson sat on a comfortable couch, in the personal quarters of humanity's ambassador, Donnel Udina, on the Citadel. Next to him sitting was Admiral Steven Hackett, the commanding officer of the Alliance Fifth fleet. Ambassador Udina walked to the living room, sitting down opposite of Anderson, on another couch. The three men had dozens of datapad files lying on the sofa table. Udina grabbed one of the files, quickly looking through it.

"Jenna Masterson, a Staff Commander in the Mars Defense Forces. She has many commendations, and honorable mentions." Udina said, looking at the two Alliance officers.

"No, she has epilepsy. Working on missions in various locations would be dangerous for her." Admiral Hackett stated. Anderson nodded.

"Yes, we need a soldier, who is in top condition." The human captain said.

Udina nodded, placing the datapad back on the table, after which he picked another one up, looking through it.

"Well, then there's First Lieutenant Román Enfield from the Alliance French Battalion." Udina suggested, looking at the two officers again. Anderson shook his head.

"Not a chance. He executed twenty prisoners of war during the Angolan uprising in 2167." He said, crossing his arms on his chest. Hackett nodded in agreement.

"We need a strong individual, but not one who is ready to execute prisoners, or put innocents in danger." Hackett noted. Udina nodded again, placing the datapad on the table.

Suddenly the apartment's door opened, and Jane, wearing a official Alliance uniform, walked in, four more datapads in her hands. She gave the datapads to Udina, after walking to the table.

"Thank you, Jane." Anderson said, smiling at the young woman, who smiled back, and walked back towards the front door. Jane stopped near the door, and leaned on the wall, looking at the conversation. Udina placed the datapads on the table, taking one of them, and looking through it.

"Well, what about Commander John Shepard? He's Earthborn, though orphaned at a young age. He joined the Alliance when he turned 18, after being in your guardianship for a year, Anderson." Udina said, looking at the dark skinned officer.

Before Anderson could say anything, Hackett spoke up.

"He proved himself during the Skyllian Blitz, eliminating the batarian captain, who had commenced the attack on Elysium." Hackett said in a praising tone. Anderson nodded.

"He must be the only reason Illyria is still standing." The 52 year old captain noted. Udina nodded, looking through John's files.

"He certainly is courageous." The human ambassador stated. Anderson gently tapped his hands on the table.

"Humanity needs a hero; John Shepard is the best we've got." He said determinately. Hackett nodded in agreement.

"I second that." The Admiral said. Udina nodded, and stood up from the couch, looking at the officers.

"I'll make the call, gentlemen." The ambassador said. The two officers then stood up, and shook hands with the human ambassador, all being in agreement of the decision.

Seeing what had happened, Jane made a little fist pump with her hand, letting out a silent "Yes" from her mouth. After that, the 23 year old Alliance officer waited for Anderson to come to her, and proceeded to walk out of the ambassador's apartment with him.

****Okay, so here's chapter five for ya guys! Sorry it's a bit shorter, but the next chapter will be longer, I assure you. **

**I hope you liked this one; there are really not many things for me to say about this. There's not much that I changed in this chapter, other than altering the choosing of John a bit.**

**And yes, Jane did play a little part in it, hence why she was glad of the decision.**

**Please give me those reviews, it's what makes me know if you really read this fanfic.** **


	7. Chapter 6: Eden Prime

**Chapter 6: Eden Prime**

In the infinite emptiness of space, a lonely communications satellite floated near the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto. Two human engineers in spacesuits floated near around the satellite. One of them clung on to the small construct, and opened a service panel, starting to work on the inner parts of the satellite.

As the other human clung on the other side of the satellite, the quiet space around them suddenly was interrupted by a small warship flying past them at great speed. The propulsion power of the ship shook the satellite a little bit, forcing the engineers to hold on to it harder.

The speeding frigate was the SSV Normandy, the newest and most advanced warship in the Alliance navy. The marvel of engineering flew past several small Alliance observational sensors and satellites, heading towards the massive Mass Relay in the high orbit of Pluto's moon, Charon.

On the bridge of the ship, Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau busily controlled the ship, flying it towards the Relay. Behind the pilot was standing a tall turian, wearing shiny body armor.

"The Charon Relay is in range, FTL engines are hot." Joker stated, moving a couple of holographic windows aside the dashboard.

After a moment, Commander John Shepard walked beside the observing turian soldier, looking over Joker's work as well.

The aerodynamic ship shot past the last observation sensors before the Relay, closing in on the bright blue centre of energy, comprised of dark energy and mass effect fields.

"Hitting the Relay in three, two, one…" Joker counted, as the Normandy flew next to the energy centre. Blue lighting of energy shot at the ship, and surrounded it, suddenly shooting it forwards at unimaginable speeds. After vanishing into the speeds faster of light, Normandy was nowhere to be seen anymore. The active Mass Relay then calmed down, and returned to its normal form, waiting for another ship to transit through it.

A few moments later, Joker looked through statistics and system reports on the bridge.

"Thrusters; check. Navigation; check. Internal heating dampeners engaged, and drift is just under 1500K." The pilot announced, leaning back on his seat a bit.

"1500 is good; your captain will be pleased." The turian passenger said, and then left the bridge. After the turian had left, Joker shook his head a bit.

"I hate that guy…" The human pilot remarked. Kaidan, who was sitting next to him, raised his eyebrows.

"Nihlus just gave you an opinion, and now you hate him?" The lieutenant asked, being baffled by the pilot's surprising statement. Joker just shrugged his comrade's question off.

"Spectres are trouble… I don't like having him on board." He said, stroking his goatee a bit.

The turian soldier visiting the Normandy was Nihlus Kryik, a Spectre operative of the Citadel council. Spectres where the elite law enforcement agents of the council, only answering to them. Spectres where above all laws themselves, the only thing they were held accountable for, was the Citadel council, which they served. Only a few selected soldiers and military operatives were chosen to join the prestigious group of peacekeepers. Spectres were given complete control over the law, even the value of a sentient life. Only the council was above the Spectres, nothing else.

Nihlus had arrived on the Normandy a couple of hours earlier, apparently having made a deal with Anderson to oversee a shakedown mission on Eden Prime. John had no idea why a Spectre from the council would spend their time overseeing a regular stealth system exercise.

"Call me paranoid if you will." Joker said, to which Kaidan quickly answered.

"You *are* paranoid. The council helped fund this project; they have the right to send whoever they want to oversee their investment." The lieutenant explained. Joker shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, that's the official story… but nobody believes those." The pilot said. John chuckled behind him.

"You always expect the worst, Joker." John said. Joker laughed quietly a bit.

"Well, bad feelings are a workplace hazard… but we've done well so far. But seriously, what are we doing here?" The pilot asked, turning to look at the N7 soldier sitting next to him. Before Kaidan could answer, Anderson's voice coming through the intercom interrupted him.

"Joker, status report." The captain's voice ordered. Joker immediately pulled up some holographic statistics on the dashboard.

"Just cleared the Relay, Captain. Stealth systems are engaged, everything looks solid." The human pilot answered, clearing the statistics.

"Good. Find a comm. buoy and link us to it. I want a full report for the council before we reach Eden Prime." Anderson instructed through the intercom system. Joker nodded his head.

"Roger that, sir. Hey, better brace yourself; Nihlus is heading your way." Joker said, smirking a bit.

"He's already here, lieutenant…." Anderson answered, his voice clearly embarrassed and a bit frustrated. Kaidan looked at the pilot, who shrugged his shoulders, which made the N7 soldier roll his eyes.

"Tell Commander Shepard to come see me in the conference room, I have something to talk to him about." Anderson ordered. The intercom shut down, and Joker glanced over his shoulder a bit.

"You got that, sir?" The pilot asked John. The 25 year old commander nodded, and sighed quietly.

"I'm on my way." John said quietly, starting to walk away from the bridge.

After John had left, Joker chuckled and looked at Kaidan again.

"Is it just me, or does the captain always sound pissed off?" The pilot asked jokingly. Kaidan smirked at his comrade.

"Only when he's talking to you…" Kaidan stated, continuing to work on his dashboard console.

As John walked towards the CIC (Combat Information Center) which contained the main console of the Normandy, and the large holographic galaxy map, he noticed the chief navigator officer Pressly talk with engineer Adams through an intercom. The conversation was more like an argument, in truth.

"I'm telling you, something's off, Adams. A turian spectre on board our ship, just overlooking exercises? Not possible, I say. There's something Captain Anderson's not telling us." The balding navigator officer said to the microphone.

"You're over thinking it, Pressly. The council wouldn't send a spectre to spy us, or anything." Adams answered through the intercom. Pressly shook his head.

"Mark my words, this mission will not be what it seems to be." The navigator said, shutting off the intercom.

John walked to the navigator, who noticed him approaching, turning around and saluting the young commander.

"Good day, Commander. Looks like we've got a smooth run." Pressly said, saluting John.

"Looks like you're not really thrilled about our turian guest?" John asked. Pressly bit his lip.

"Sorry, Commander, just talking with Adams a bit. I do admit that there's something odd going on here, the whole crew is feeling it." Pressly explained, looking around quickly.

"You think the Alliance is holding out on us?" John asked, raising his eyebrow. Pressly nodded a bit.

"If all we're supposed to do is try out the stealth systems, why does the council send a turian spectre to oversee it? It doesn't make sense, commander." Pressly said. John could see what was going on in the navigator's head.

"You don't trust Nihlus." John assumed. Pressly frowned a bit.

"I'm not a fan of turians in general, runs in my family. My father and grandfather both fought in the first contact war, they lost a lot of friends during that conflict." The navigator explained. John nodded.

"I understand, but we're all in this galaxy together, Pressly." John said. Pressly shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose so, but I guess I'm just stuck in the old ways." Pressly answered. John tapped the navigator's shoulder.

"We all have our opinions, Pressly." John said, smiling a bit. Pressly nodded his head, and made a small salute.

"Quite so, Commander." The navigator said, before turning back towards his console, continuing to work.

After that, John made his way towards the conference room again, walking past many of the ship's crews, working on the CIC. As he walked past the galaxy map, John saw Private Jenkins talking with Dr. Chakwas nearby, and decided to greet the two. As John walked to them, Jenkins turned around and saluted him.

"What do you think Commander; we won't stay on Eden Prime for too long, are we? I'm itching for some real action!" The young private said enthusiastically.

"I sincerely hope you are kidding, private; your 'real action' usually means me patching you up" Dr. Chakwas stated, raising her eyebrows at the young soldier.

"The doctor's right, Jenkins, you need to calm it down a bit." John said, looking at Jenkins. The private shook his head.

"I want this to be my moment, commander! I really want to become an awesome soldier!" Jenkins said, his eyes shining of enthusiasm. John raised his hands in objection.

"You're young, private; you still have many missions ahead of you. Don't ruin it by doing anything hasty." John instructed. Jenkins nodded, but still was overly enthusiastic.

"Easy for you to say; you proved yourself during the Blitz, everyone knows what you're capable of." Jenkins said, admiring his commanding officer. John wasn't exactly proud of anything he had done during the Blitz, nor did he think of himself being a hero.

"Just think of this being a regular mission, and you'll do fine, Jenkins" John said plainly, instructing his young subordinate. Jenkins saluted him, and smiled.

"You got it, commander!" The young human private said. After that, John turned his face to look at Dr. Chakwas.

"So, what do you think of our turian guest, Nihlus?" John asked curiously.

"Haven't seen a spectre up close before; Nihlus doesn't seem too different from any turian soldiers, though. I haven't spoken to him at all; he seems to like to keep himself away from most of the crew, only people he seems to talk to is Captain Anderson." Chakwas explained. John nodded.

"I haven't seen spectres before either; they're quite enigmatic in galactic society." He stated.

"I agree, the council usually has their spectres working outside of Citadel space, it's rare to see a spectre on the Citadel, or on one of the council worlds. They tend to keep to themselves." Chakwas said. Jenkins seemed to disagree.

"Spectres are awesome! They can go anywhere, and do anything they want! They're above all law and rules, they make their own rules!" Jenkins said cheerily.

John didn't know much about the spectres, but he could tell that nothing really stopped them from going rogue, and putting innocents in danger. In his eyes, they were like a secret police force of the Council, almost like the KGB and Gestapo in the history of humanity.

"I'll go see what's going on, the Captain's waiting for me." John noted, and started walking towards the door to the conference room. Chakwas and Jenkins noted, the doctor bidding farewell to the young commander.

After a moment, John entered the conference room, noticing Nihlus standing at the end of the room, looking at a holographic image of Eden Prime. John walked behind towards the turian, who turned around to face him.

"Ah, Commander, I was hoping you'd get here first. It'd give us a chance to talk." Nihlus said. John raised his eyebrows a bit, wondering where Anderson was.

"What about?" The commander asked, looking at the turian spectre. Nihlus glanced back at the image of Eden Prime.

"I'm interested in this world we're headed to; Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful." The turian said, looking at the picture.

"I've never been there, but I've heard people say it's a paradise." John answered. Nihlus nodded, turning back to look at John.

"Yes, a paradise. Eden Prime has become sort of a symbol of your people. Proof of not only humanity is able to found colonies, but also protect them." Nihlus said, his mandibles moving a bit. John frowned a bit.

"What are you suggesting?" John asked, walking a couple of steps towards the turian. Nihlus approached John as well, as if challenging him.

"Your people are still newcomers to this galaxy, Shepard. Humanity has still much to learn. And that makes me wonder; is the Alliance truly ready for this?" Nihlus said, crossing his arms.

After that, Captain Anderson entered the room, walking next to John and Nihlus.

"I think it's time to tell the commander what's really going on…" Anderson said to Nihlus.

"This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run." Nihlus started. John turned his face to Anderson.

"I wondered whether there was something you weren't telling us." John said. Anderson nodded, and looked at his former ward.

"This comes down from the top, highly classified. We're heading for Eden Prime to obtain a certain object." Anderson explained. John raised his eyebrows.

"Must be really secret, if no one is allowed to talk about it…" John wondered, to which Anderson nodded.

"It's extremely classified. A couple of weeks ago a scientific team on Eden Prime uncovered an ancient device from an archeological dig, it's believed to be a Prothean beacon of some sort." Anderson explained. John's eyes widened a bit as he raised his brow.

"A Prothean beacon?" John asked, being surprised. It had been decades since another Prothean discovery had been made.

"Yes, this is a huge discovery, and understandably kept secret." Nihlus stated. Anderson nodded.

"The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forwards 200 years. But Eden Prime doesn't have the capabilities of studying this beacon, so that's why we've been assigned to retrieve the device, and bring it to the Citadel for proper study." Anderson explained.

"Obviously this goes beyond human interest. The council has asked me to oversee the retrieval, as well as cooperate with the Alliance in this mission." Nihlus explained in turn. John nodded and smiled slightly.

"If this is such a great discovery, I'm happy we have all the help we can get from the council." He said to the turian spectre, who took a couple of steps towards him.

"The beacon is not the only thing why I'm here, though, Shepard." Nihlus said. John raised his eyebrow.

"Nihlus is here to see you in action, John. He'll evaluate your expertise and skills." Anderson explained. John raised his eyebrow, being a bit confused.

"What's going on, Anderson?" He asked the 52 year old captain.

"Nihlus has forwarded your name to the council as a spectre candidate, the first human ever to receive the status." Anderson said. Nihlus continued.

"I read your service record, Shepard. Your actions during the Skyllian Blitz were impressive. Your defense of Elysium was both courageous and skillful. I do believe you'd be an excellent addition to the spectres." The turian explained. John looked at Anderson.

"I assume this would be good for the Alliance?" He asked his captain. John had no idea what it'd be like to be a spectre.

"Humanity needs this, John. We have tried for years to get more say in the galactic society, and having one of us in the spectres will give us a tremendous advantage to reaching that goal." Anderson explained.

"The spectres represent the council's voice in galactic justice, having a human in their ranks will increase Alliance's influence over the politics, Shepard." Nihlus continued. John nodded slowly.

"Alright, so how do we proceed?" He asked the turian spectre.

"This mission will be one of many missions together, Shepard. I will be accompanying you, and giving you spectre training." Nihlus said. John smiled a bit, and shook the turian's hand.

"I appreciate it." John said. Nihlus nodded, as he shook the young human's hand.

"We should be getting close to Eden Prime…" Anderson said, but was then cut short by the voice of Joker, coming through the intercom.

"Captain, we have a problem." The pilot said through the loudspeaker. Anderson frowned in surprise.

"What is it, Joker?" The captain asked.

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir… you'd better see this." Joker answered, sounding distressed. Anderson nodded and took a couple steps towards the holographic screen on the wall.

"Put it on the screen." The captain ordered.

John and Nihlus also turned to look at the screen, as the video feed began. John could recognize it being footage from an Alliance marine's helmet camera. As soon as the feed started, the trio could see dozens of explosions and gunshots fill the screen. The marine, from who's helmet the camera feed was from, ran around the battlefield, taking cover behind a large stone, looking at his fellow soldiers shooting at all directions.

"We're under heavy attack, taking heavy casualties!" The soldier yelled to his in-helmet microphone. An artillery shot landing nearby cut the soldier's plead, as he took cover from the falling dirt and rocks.

A soldier near him got hit by spraying blue laser shots, falling on the ground dead. John had never seen such projectiles in his life. A female soldier in red and white colored body armor ran to the soldier wearing the camera in his helmet, pushing him down more.

"Stay down!" The woman yelled, shooting a couple of rounds in the air, where the attack commenced from.

"We need immediate evac! Send reinforcements- ugh!" The soldier yelled in the microphone, being cut short by an explosion again. John frowned a bit, watching at the disturbing footage.

"My god, just send anything! We need help!" The soldier continued. Suddenly the soldier yanked violently, and fell down on the ground, having been shot to death. The camera in his helmet pointed up at the sky, which was filled with incoming blue projectiles and missiles. A couple of odd looking ships, ones which John had never seen before, approached the ground, shooting their cannons.

"Shit! Someone get an anti-air missile launcher over here!" One soldier shouted a distance away from the camera.

After that, a loud and ominous sound filled the atmosphere, making the fighting soldiers look around nervously. Suddenly a massive figure slowly descended down from behind the clouds. Immediately as the figure appeared, the video footage began to chop up and disorient, cutting off completely after a couple of seconds.

A long silence fell down in the conference room, the three soldiers looking at the white noise coming from the screen with shocked faces.

"Everything cuts out after that, there's not comm.-traffic at all, just goes dead." Joker's voice said through the intercom. Anderson frowned, and seemed to think of something.

"Reverse it and hold the footage at .38…" Anderson ordered. Joker did so, and the footage paused right at the moment, when the mysterious figure appeared.

John could see the massive figure being a vessel of some sort. It looked like a gigantic metallic squid, with huge metallic tentacle looking legs spreading out of its body. The vessel looked more advanced than anything he had ever even imagined to exist. Nihlus' mandibles twitched worriedly.

"Status report, Joker." Anderson ordered. The pilot answered a couple of seconds later.

"No incoming signals or messages for the past 12 minutes, captain… it looks like the colony was attacked." Joker said. Anderson nodded quietly.

"Take us in, Joker… nice and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated." Anderson said, turning to look at Nihlus.

"Normandy's stealth systems should be able to take us in undetected; once we're on the ground, we can have a small strike team to investigate this." Nihlus suggested. Anderson agreed, nodding quietly.

"Meet us at the cargo hold in five minutes, Nihlus." The human captain said to the turian. Nihlus nodded, and headed out of the conference room. Anderson then turned to John.

"Go get suited up, and bring Alenko and Jenkins with you, John. You're going in to the colony." Anderson instructed his ship's executive officer.

John nodded, and turned around, heading out the conference room as well. Anderson frowned, and looked at the screen again.

"The hell are you…" The captain said quietly, looking at the ominous vessel on the screen.

**10 minutes later…**

The dry land crunched under John's combat boots, pushing a bit of dust in the air. The 25 year old commander glanced over his shoulder, seeing his subordinates Kaidan Alenko and Richard L. Jenkins jump down to the ground from the Normandy's cargo hold boarding ramp.

The Normandy had dropped Nihlus off a couple of minutes earlier, and was now landed at the secondary drop point, dropping off John and his squadmates. The surface of Eden Prime was very similar to Earth, filled with forests and fields. The evening sky was darkened by smoke statues rising from the colony's buildings that were on fire. Constant gunfire and distant explosions filled the atmosphere with their sounds.

After the two soldiers walked to John, the Alliance frigate's cargo hold door closed, and the warship ascended up, firing up its engines, quickly flying away from John's vision.

"Okay, guys; let's go." John said calmly, signaling the two soldiers behind him to follow.

As the trio descended down from the slope where the Normandy had dropped them off, John and Kaidan gasped a little, when they noticed a couple of floating aliens nearby, which looked like living balloons.

"What the hell are those?" Kaidan asked, looking at the creatures as the soldiers walked past them.

"Gas Bags, don't worry, they're harmless." Jenkins, who was native to Eden Prime, explained.

After that, the three-man squad headed up a small ridge, John walking in front, his assault rifle ready. He still had no idea who they were up against, and thus kept his eyes open, ready for ambushes and surprise attacks.

As the squad walked ahead, the trio was alerted by an alarming sound of incoming jet engines. Kaidan spotted them quickly, and crouched down.

"Get down!" The human lieutenant said quickly, instructing his comrades to quickly crouch down as well.

After a couple of seconds, two fast moving fighters flew above them. John had never seen such starships before; they looked like big metallic wasps, flying faster than any Alliance fighter could ever fly. John activated the intercom system in his helmet.

"Nihlus, we just encountered two enemy fighters… never seen anything like them." John explained to the microphone. The turian spectre answered shortly after.

"Copy that, Shepard. I've scouted out a small settlement; nothing but charred bodies and dead soldiers. Watch your back out here; I don't like this at all. I'm gonna check out a small spaceport now, good luck." Nihlus answered, shutting off his intercom, after telling his info to John.

After the short conversation, Jenkins approached John, pointing at the small clearing ahead of them.

"Permission to scout ahead, sir?" The young private asked. John nodded, patting the private's shoulder.

"Okay, go ahead. Keep your finger on the trigger." The Commander advised. Jenkins nodded in acknowledgment, moving quickly to the clearing, looking around his surroundings. Kaidan came next to John, looking around as well.

Suddenly two small flying drones appeared in front of Jenkins from behind a large rock. Before the private could react, the drones opened fire, ripping through Jenkins' armor, spraying blood out of his wounds. The human private immediately fell down on the ground, his body full of smoking holes.

"Son of a bitch!" John exclaimed, and signaled Kaidan to follow him. The two N7 soldiers rushed down the slope to the clearing, Kaidan quickly using his biotic powers to slam one of the drones to the ground, destroying it. John stopped behind a small rock, and quickly shot the other drone, as it was acquiring the human commander as its new target.

After the enemy drone had dropped on the ground, inactive, Kaidan and John walked over to Jenkins' body to check the damage. Kaidan crouched down beside the young private, scanning his body with an omni-tool. After that, Kaidan sighed deeply, closing the private's eyes; Jenkins was dead.

"Ripped right through his shields and armor… he didn't stand a chance." The human lieutenant sad quietly, standing up to look at John. John sighed, as he looked at his now dead subordinate.

"We'll see that he'll receive a proper funeral after this mission… but Kaidan, I need you focused right now." The commander said to his comrade. Kaidan nodded, sighing a bit.

"I know, John. Let's get a move on." The lieutenant answered. John nodded, and started to head towards a small forest, Kaidan following him closely.

A few minutes later, the two N7 soldiers came out of the small forest, walking down a small slope again, towards a clearing and some settlements.

A dozen meters ahead of them, they suddenly saw a female Alliance soldier, running for her life. A flying drone, same kind which killed Jenkins earlier, flew behind her, shooting its small machinegun relentlessly. The woman suddenly tripped on her feet, and fell down on the ground. She quickly turned on her back, and shot at the drone with her rifle, destroying it. As John saw that, he signaled Kaidan to follow him, starting to walk towards the woman.

As the woman got up, she looked towards the settlement, and gasped as she saw two synthetic figures escorting a human civilian towards an odd looking device. The synthetics placed the weak human on the device, which suddenly extended out as a large spike, impaling the human violently. The woman gasped, and ran behind a large rock, after that happened. The synthetics noticed it, and raised their advanced pulse rifles, starting to head at the female soldier's cover.

Before the synthetics got too close, John and Kaidan rushed to the woman, John quickly using his biotics to raise the robots in the air, while Kaidan quickly shot their metallic armor full of holes, destroying the inner parts of them.

After the threat was over, the woman took a deep breath, holstering her assault rifle behind her back. John and Kaidan walked to the soldier, who immediately saluted them, as she saw them being N7 soldiers.

"Sergeant Ashley Williams, Gunner Chief in the 162nd Artillery Regiment. Are you part of the reinforcements, sir?" The woman introduced herself, also asking her question in a distressed manner. John sighed quietly.

"We're not reinforcements, but we'll do what we can to help. Are you wounded Williams?" John asked the young female soldier. Williams shook her head, still catching her breath.

"No, I'm fine, sir… others in my platoon weren't so lucky…" Sgt. Williams said, lowering her head. Kaidan walked over one of the synthetics, looking at the dead robot with disturbed eyes.

"Commander… these things look like Geth." The lieutenant said, crouching next to one of the synthetics, investigating it. Sgt. Williams nodded her head.

"Yes, I think they're Geth…" The woman sergeant said, looking at the dead Geth soldier. John raised his eyebrows. Geth here on Eden Prime; how was that possible?

"The Geth haven't set food outside the Perseus Veil for three centuries… what the hell are they doing here?" John wondered, scratching the back of his neck a bit.

"They must've come for the Prothean beacon that was discovered. It's right ahead of us, at the dig site, I can take you there." Williams suggested, pointing at the nearby settlement. John nodded, signaling Kaidan to stand up.

"Okay, Williams. Take us there… whatever this beacon is, it's obviously something more than the council is interested in." John said, looking at the dead Geth again.

After that, the human sergeant escorted the two N7 specialists towards the nearby dig site, which was the dig site the Prothean device was discovered in.

**...**

Nihlus approached a small spaceport's cargo processing area, taking cover behind a container. The turian spectre sensed something was wrong, not just with the Geth invading a human colony. With his perfected awareness of his immediate surroundings, Nihlus sensed someone was pacing around near him in the area.

The turian readied his elite rifle, and then emerged from his cover, quickly approaching his target. With widening eyes, Nihlus lowered his weapon, as he recognized the figure standing in front of him. It was another turian, one who Nihlus knew.

"Saren…?" Nihlus inquired in disbelief. The grey skinned turian turned around, looking at the spectre near him. Saren looked at his acquaintance with a calm and steady face.

"Nihlus…" The turian said quietly, walking towards the spectre. Nihlus lowered his weapon completely, looking around a bit.

"This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?" The turian spectre asked his colleague. Saren calmly placed his hand on Nihlus' shoulder, smiling a bit to his friend.

"The council though you might need some help with this one." The fellow turian spectre assured, patting Nihlus' shoulder a bit. Nihlus noticed that Saren's entire right arm was synthetic; it looked like a Geth arm. That made the turian spectre suspicious, but he shook off the thoughts, looking at the skies, which were filled with smoke.

"I didn't expect to find Geth here… the situation's bad; we need to contact the council about this." Nihlus said, grabbing his rifle in his hands. Saren walked behind his spectre colleague, still staying calm and steady.

"Don't worry…. I have it under control." The turian spectre veteran said, taking an M-77 Paladin pistol from his hip, and suddenly aiming it at Nihlus' head. The turian spectre had no idea what his colleague was intending to do, and he paid for his trust, as Saren pulled the trigger on his pistol.

**...**

"I don't understand… the beacon was right here, it must've been moved." Sgt. Williams said, while looking around the dig site, which was empty. She had led John and Kaidan to the dig site a minute earlier, in hopes of showing them the Prothean beacon. Now it looked like the device had been taken away.

"But by who? Our side, or the Geth?" Kaidan asked the woman. Ashley shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know… we should maybe look around, try to find out where it is." She suggested. John looked around the area, seeing a couple of those Geth devices, which had impaled unfortunate human civilians.

"What are those things?" John asked the Alliance sergeant. Ashley shrugged her shoulders again, shaking her head a bit.

"I have no idea… but it's seemingly turning its victims into some sort of... husk…" Ashley noted, looking at the human victims hanging on the spikes, clearly being turned into some sort of creatures.

Suddenly the spikes moved down, sheathing into the device's root. The human victims descended with the spikes, suddenly starting to move. As the spikes went down, the human husks moved off of the machine, walking a couple of steps away from them. John, Kaidan and Ashley all gasped, as they saw these monsters come to life, behaving like synthetic zombies.

"What did the geth do to them!?" Ashley exclaimed, raising her assault rifle to point it at the approaching creatures.

"Take them down!" John ordered, opening fire on the attacking monsters. The husks didn't even twitch from the first couple of shots that pierced their bodies, to the contrary; they just got angrier. The husks charged forward, screaming their monstrous yell, trying to claw their way towards the Alliance soldiers. The Geth-made monsters didn't stand a chance against the powerful rifles of the soldiers, killing them quickly enough. After the husks had all died, Kaidan took a deep breath.

"They turn our dead against us… how the hell did the geth even get technology like this?" The young lieutenant wondered. Ashley hummed quietly.

"The geth have been isolated from the rest of the galaxy for three hundred years… I'm sure they could've developed something like this in that time." She pointed out. John sighed, reloading his rifle, which had smoke come out its muzzle.

"Let's go find that beacon and get out of here… if the geth are really invading, we'll need more forces." The commander said, looking around the area while taking a deep breath.

Then suddenly the ground started to shake, like a small earthquake. The soldiers looked around, trying to figure out the source of the sudden quake. They didn't need to look further than into the horizon, where the massive vessel started taking off. John gasped as he saw the gigantic squid-like starship slowly ascend towards the sky.

"Holy shit… that thing is massive!" Kaidan exclaimed, looking at the ship taking off. The ship must've been over a kilometer tall, it was truly massive. As the long metallic tentacle-like legs touched off from the ground, the shaking stopped. The ship started to increase its speed, ascending to the sky rapidly, making a loud metallic noise that rang deep in John's eardrums.

After a few moments, the vessel disappeared behind a large cloud, still making awfully loud noise, as it ascended into the heavens. John had no idea if it was a geth ship, or something else, he had never thought the geth could possess such technology, let alone such massive ships. Something more was going on, than it seemed.

Two geth troopers worked on a large explosive device, while another one was overlooking their work. The rogue turian spectre, Saren Arterius, walked to the synthetic soldiers.

"Forget about the explosives, we're leaving. Prepare the ship for take-off, and take us to the rendezvous point to meet up with Sovereign." The turian spectre ordered. The geth troopers got up, and ticked and chirped their answer in their electronic language. After that, the robots rushed away. Saren turned towards another four geth troopers, one of them being a lot bigger and more armored than the rest.

"The Alliance is coming; you need to stay here and protect the beacon. If they overwhelm you, destroy it." The turian ordered. The big and bulky geth nodded its head in acknowledgment, signaling its smaller companions to take positions near the Prothean beacon, which was moved to the end of the cargo loading area.

After that, Saren took a quick glance at the beacon, his face in a frown. Having gotten everything he came for, the turian spectre then left the scene with his geth escort, heading towards the geth corvette, which was landed nearby.

The three Alliance soldiers approached the cargo loading area at the small local spaceport. As they walked up the ramp that took them to the loading area, Kaidan and John immediately noticed a dead turian lying on the ground, a blue pool of blood surrounding him. They recognized him to be Nihlus. Kaidan crouched over the dead turian, trying to check for any clues.

"He's been shot through the head… looks like from behind. Whoever did this must've had him let his guard down first…" Kaidan explained, investigating the turian spectre's body. John sighed, and scratched the back of his neck. Nihlus was dead, Eden Prime was all but decimated by the geth, and the beacon was nowhere to be seen; John really didn't know what would happen next.

Suddenly Ashley raised her rifle, and pointed it towards a couple of cargo containers ahead.

"I saw you! Come out!" The sergeant yelled. As John was about to ask her, what she had seen, a human man walked from behind the containers with his hands up.

"No! Wait, don't shoot! I'm human." The man pleaded. John put his hand on Ashley's rifle, pushing it down.

"What were you doing over there? Can't you see there's geth running around?" John asked the frightened man.

"I know, I was hiding from them… everyone here is dead… only I'm left." The man said, lowering his head. Kaidan stood up from Nihlus' body, looking at the human man.

"Did you see what happened to this turian?" The lieutenant asked. The man nodded quickly.

"Yes! I saw it all! He was killed by that other turian!" The man said. John and Kaidan glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows.

"What other turian?" John asked the man.

"There was this other turian here… I guess his name was Saren, or something. I think the two of them knew each other…" The man explained, scratching his head a bit. John had a bad feeling about this; Nihlus had been killed by another turian, and if he was an acquaintance to the council spectre, this Saren had to be a spectre too.

"Great… we have a traitor in our midst." John remarked quietly.

Before John could ask anything else from the man, a loud gunshot startled the entire group. The man twitched in pain, and fell on his face on the ground, his entire back vaporized and smoking.

Out of thin air, a geth shotgun trooper appeared. The synthetic's tactical cloak deactivated, making the trooper visible.

Kaidan quickly activated his omni-tool, and shot out a shock of electricity at the geth soldier, corrupting its shields and inner programming, making it shake uncontrollably. John and Ashley raised their rifles, and shot the geth full of holes. After the geth had died, John looked at the dead human man, sighing deeply.

"God damn it... the geth even got cloaked soldiers…" The commander said quietly.

Ashley walked over to the dead man, looking around quickly. Her eyes stopped, as she looked towards the end of the loading area. The human sergeant pointed at that direction.

"Commander, look! There's the beacon!" Ashley said, pointing at a large device several meters away, at the end of the loading area. John saw it too, and smiled a bit.

"Good eye, Williams. Let's go." John said, signaling the two soldiers to follow him.

As the trio approached the beacon, four geth troopers emerged from behind different containers, blocking their way. One of the geth soldiers larger than the others, ordering the small ones to attack John and his squad, speaking in the electric language of the geth.

As the geth troopers opened fire, both John and Kaidan reacted with their biotic powers, forming a powerful shield around them, which absorbed the geth pulse rounds.

"We can't hold them forever! Williams, throw an EMP!" John ordered. The young female sergeant then quickly grabbed a small grenade from her hip, throwing it through the shield. The grenade landed in the middle of the four geth troopers, detonating and immediately immobilizing the three normal soldiers. The larger geth juggernaut didn't even flinch from the grenade. The large geth started walking towards the Alliance soldiers, opening fire with its small minigun, which shot hundreds of rounds at the biotic shield.

John had had enough, blue energy surrounding his body. The young commander pulled the geth's weapon out of its hands with a biotic pull. Now disarmed, the geth juggernaut stared at its adversaries for a second, before starting to walk towards them again, clenching its hands into fists.

Ashley aggressively shot out a concussive shot out of the second barrel in her assault rifle, which pierced the geth's armor, and spraying the metallic parts all around. Its inner parts now exposed, the geth seemed to be a bit more concerned of its own safety. But the synthetic soldier was too slow for the hardened human soldiers, as all the three of them opened fire, shooting the large geth full of rounds. The juggernaut fell on its knees, its blue lights shutting down, after which it collapsed on the ground, having been disabled.

After the geth had been taken out, John took a deep breath, and approached the beacon again. As he noticed there weren't any other threats around, the commander activated his intercom inside his helmet, contacting the Normandy.

"Normandy, the beacon is secure, we're ready for extraction." John said through the intercom.

Kaidan and Ashley approached the beacon a bit more, Kaidan being amazed to see actual Prothean technology.

"Amazing; an actual working Prothean device… unbelievable." The young lieutenant remarked, looking at the beacon, which was surrounded by subtly glowing green energy. Ashley raised her eyebrows.

"It wasn't doing anything like that before… it must've been activated…" The sergeant wondered, walking closer to the device. Kaidan walked back to John, who had received an answer from the Normandy.

"Roger that, Joker… we'll see you soon." John said to his microphone, deactivating his intercom afterwards. As Kaidan stopped next to John, Ashley in the meanwhile investigated the beacon more closely.

Suddenly the glowing green energy pulsated, beginning to pull Ashley towards the beacon. The young sergeant couldn't control her movements, being pulled at the Prothean device unwillingly. John saw that, and quickly ran past Kaidan, who turned to look what was happening with a surprised face.

John jumped and grabbed Ashley by her waist, turning her around quickly, and throwing her away from the beacon's pull. But after that, John himself was caught in the energy's pull, suddenly raising him in the air, and holding him there.

"Commander!" Ashley yelled, as she regained her senses, and tried to help John, but Kaidan held her back.

"No, don't touch him, it's too dangerous!" The human lieutenant said, holding back the woman.

As John floated in the air, the beacon showed him fast moving images in his head. John couldn't make sense of the images, but he could tell they were about carnage and destruction. The images were like the short vision he had on Torfan two years ago, but this one didn't make any sense at all to him.

After a few moments, the beacon suddenly exploded in a green energy wave, throwing John back a few meters, and slamming him on the ground. Ashley and Kaidan immediately rushed to the commander's side, who had lost consciousness. As Ashley checked John's vitals, Kaidan activated his helmet's intercom, quickly contacting the Normandy.

**At the same time on the Citadel…**

In the dark alleys of one of the several wards in the Citadel's arms, a young quarian woman ran for her life. The girl panted, as she dodged walls and cut corners, escaping her chaser. Behind the quarian, a turian soldier ran too, his weapon at the ready to kill.

After making a swift left turn, the quarian girl ran through a small alley, leading to a larger open area, which turned out to be a dead end. The young woman panted and looked around in panic, trying to find any way to escape.

The turian soldier reached her, stopping about ten meters from her, and laughing a bit.

"You really thought you could get away from me, suit rat? Think again." The turian said, raising his rifle. The quarian quickly activated her omni-tool, forming a pink coloured combat drone in the air.

"Show him Chatika!" The quarian shouted, as the combat drone appeared. The drone aggressively charged the turian, who activated his omni-tool, and destroyed the drone with a single swipe of electricity. The drone dissolved, as it was disabled, and the quarian took a couple of steps backwards, trying to stay away from the turian.

"Next time, upgrade your drone first, little girl… oh wait… there won't be a next time for you." The turian said, smirking deviously, and raising his rifle at her.

But before he could shoot, a big figure stomped behind the turian. As soon as the turian turned around, he was grabbed by his throat by the big assailant. The attacker choke slammed his victim on the hard floor, making the quarian able to see her savior was a krogan. The krogan had a red headcrest, and a large scar going across his whole face. The krogan soldier surrounded his body with blue biotic energy, and violently stomped on the turian's head with his feet, crushing the unfortunate turian's skull. The quarian girl closed her eyes in disgust, not wanting to see that.

After that, the girl opened her eyes, seeing a small volus and another turian to walk from behind the krogan. The volus approached her, stopping in front of her.

"*ghh* Ms. Tali'Zorah… I believe you've been trying to contact the Shadow Broker in hopes of transferring information for protection?" The volus asked, breathing quite often, as volus' did. The quarian girl sighed a bit.

"Yes… yes, I have information about a council spectre named Saren; he's working for the geth, and I thought that'd be important for the council." Tali explained to the volus. The volus nodded his head.

"*ghh* Indeed, Ms. Zorah… that information is highly valuable for the council, and the Shadow Broker. *ghh*" The volus answered. The krogan behind the volus chuckled a bit.

"It seems Saren is interested in it as well, little one…" The krogan said, looking over the dead turian's body.

"*ghh* I am Barla Von, a financial advisor, and an agent for the Shadow Broker. *ghh* Are you injured, Miss?" The volus asked, looking at Tali's left arm, which was bleeding.

"I sealed my suit, but the wound is still bleeding…" She said, holding her arm a bit. Barla Von nodded, and handed out a credit card for her.

"There is a medical clinic nearby, here's for any expenses you'll possibly face. If you wish to exchange the information you have for protection, look for a man named Fist at the Chora's Den nightclub. *ghh* He's also an agent for the Shadow Broker, and he'll be able to provide your protection, in exchange of the data." The volus said, handing the credit card to the young quarian.

"Oh… uhm… thank you. I'll go meet this Fist after getting patched up… thank you." Tali said, in a bit more cheerful voice. Barla Von nodded, and bowed a little.

"Goodbye, Ms. Zorah, we won't unfortunately meet again. *ghh* Fist will set you up with one of the Shadow Broker's personal agents, and provide you protection from Saren's agents. *ghh* Good luck, young one." Barla Von said, turning around, and walking away. The krogan and the turian mercenaries followed the volus, the krogan quickly turning to look at Tali.

"Stay safe now, little one." The krogan said, striking a small smile from his face.

After that, the krogan brute walked away too, and Tali was left alone. The young quarian took a deep breath, looking over at the dead turian, who was chasing her just a minute earlier. Then Tali slowly walked away from the area, leaving Saren's assassin lying dead on the ground. She made her way to the nearby medical clinic, hoping to get quick help there, so she'd be able to be rid of the information she held, to take the heat off her from Saren. She was scared and alone, no one was there to protect her from Saren's assassins. Only luck had saved her now, in the form of Barla Von and his mercenaries.

****Okay, here's chapter six for ya guys! It's a long one, I know, but I figured it'd be nice to give you a treat every once in a while.**

**Some obvious changes in this chapter, the Eden Prime invasion is a bit different, as well as the interaction on the planet. The geth are their ME3 versions already, because it didn't make sense to me that they changed so much between a couple of years in game.**

**I decided to include Tali at the end solely as a gift for all the fellow Talimancers out there, we love her, and we're proud of it. **

**I hope you enjoyed this one, let me know in the reviews, and seriously, do write them, it keeps me going. Have a good one, guys** **


	8. Chapter 7: The Prothean Warning

**Chapter 7: The Prothean Warning**

A stiff headache woke John up from his short coma, ending the black darkness in his mind. He slowly opened his eyes, trying to get up from the bed.

"Doctor! Dr. Chakwas, I think he's waking up!" A familiar female voice exclaimed. John sat up on the medical bed, holding his head for a minute, before opening his eyes fully, and looking around. Dr. Chakwas and Ashley walked to him, the doctor smiling a bit.

"You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?" Chakwas asked. John grunted quietly, stroking his short beard.

"Like the morning after an alcohol filled shore leave… how long was I out?" John asked, lifting his face up to look at the doctor.

"About 15 hours, commander. Something happened down there at the colony; you got quite a blow to your head." Chakwas explained. Ashley sighed quietly, and walked next to the doctor.

"It was my fault… I must have activated the beacon somehow…" The sergeant said. John shook his head a bit.

"You couldn't have known it would do that." John answered in her defense. Ashley smiled, even blushing just a bit.

"Well, whatever it was, it knocked you out good. But physically you're fine, I've only seen signs of increased amount of beta waves in your brain, and also an increase in your rapid eye movement; it usually means vivid dreaming or hallucinating." Dr. Chakwas explained. John squint his eyes, trying to remember what he saw in that vision.

"I saw… I'm not sure what I saw… death… destruction… but nothing's really clear…" The young commander said quietly, closing his eyes, trying to get deeper into his thoughts. After a moment, John jumped off the bed, leaning against it, while thinking.

"So, what happened to the beacon?" He asked the female sergeant next to him.

"It exploded right after doing that thing to you. I and Lieutenant Alenko carried you back to the Normandy afterwards." Ashley said. John smiled a bit, and patted the sergeant's shoulder in appreciation.

"Thanks for that, Ashley." John said. Ashley smiled again, being happily surprised at the commander calling her by her first name.

"Well, I'll include your 'vision' in my report… it may- oh… Captain Anderson." Chakwas said, being cut short by Anderson walking in to the medical bay.

"How's our XO doing, doctor?" The captain asked. Chakwas patted John's back once.

"He's fine, all the things considered. The commander's a tough one." The doctor said. Anderson nodded, smiling little.

"Good to hear. John, I need to talk with you… in private." Anderson said, quickly looking at Ashley and Chakwas. The young female sergeant saluted the captain.

"Aye aye, captain. I'll be in the mess hall if you need me." Ashley said, walking out the medical bay with Dr. Chakwas.

After the two had left the room, Anderson turned to look at John.

"Sounds like it got pretty tight in there, are you okay?" The captain asked. John, who remembered Jenkins' recent death, sighed and stroked his forehead.

"Jenkins is dead… I'm tired of losing soldiers…" The young commander answered quietly. Anderson nodded, and patted John's shoulder.

"I know the feeling, John. Jenkins was a good and bright young fellow, the Normandy is a lot emptier without him… but, John... you can't change the unfortunate fact that soldiers and even civilians will die during war. The worst thing in all of it is… that you can't save them all." Anderson said quietly, trying to console the young commander. John nodded quietly.

"I guess… and that's a fact I still haven't accepted fully." The commander said. Anderson nodded, and decided to change the subject.

"John, what happened with the beacon? It did something to you, and then it was destroyed." The captain asked. John nodded and took a deep breath.

"Just before I lost consciousness, the beacon gave some kind of… vision…" He said quietly, remembering the violent images he saw. Anderson stroked his chin a bit.

"A vision of what?" The older captain asked. John sighed, and frowned his face just a bit.

"I saw synthetics… maybe geth… I saw them butcher people… destroying entire cities and worlds. It reminded me of the vision I had on Torfan…" John explained. Anderson stroked his chin in his thoughts, nodding quietly.

"This is serious, John. You've seen a similar vision now twice… it's not a coincidence." The captain said. John shrugged his shoulders.

"Most people would consider me crazy, or lying." He answered. Anderson shook his head.

"Saren's involvement in this makes the difference. He just murdered another spectre, and he's working with the geth. That is why I trust that you saw these visions, John." The captain explained. John raised his eyebrow a bit.

"So this Saren is a spectre too?" He asked. Anderson sighed in a bit of frustration, and nodded.

"Yes, he's one of the most respected spectres of all time, the council holds him in high value… which is exactly why proving to them that Saren is guilty, will be difficult." Anderson said. John crossed his arms over his chest.

"But we have the evidence! He attacked Eden Prime with the geth!" The commander said. Anderson sighed, and leaned against the bed.

"Unfortunately we don't have the evidence, John. The only eyewitness we had died. We need to find some way to prove Saren's guilt. When the council sees it, they'll strip him of his spectre status, which will make his job a lot harder. Right now he can go anywhere, and do almost anything…" The captain explained. John nodded, and frowned in determination.

"We'll prove Saren's guilt, and the council will help us. And I *will* find a way to bring him down, count on that, Anderson." The commander said defiantly. Anderson nodded.

"I believe you, John… but don't become the thing you're hunting. Don't ever let fear compromise who you are, and most of the time, most atrocious things in the universe are made in fear… I believe there's more to Saren's sudden rampage, than it seems." Anderson said, patting John's shoulder.

After that, Joker's voice suddenly chirped in over the intercom.

"Captain Anderson, we're approaching the Relay, ETA to the Citadel is about fifteen minutes." The Normandy's pilot declared. Anderson nodded, and turned to look at John again.

"I need to contact Admiral Hackett in my cabin, John. Go on the bridge to accompany Joker in bringing us into dock at the Citadel, okay?" He asked, patting John's shoulder. John nodded, and smiled a bit.

"Sure…" He answered, smiling a bit for his superior officer and friend. Anderson smiled too, and then left the medical bay. John sighed quietly, and headed out the room himself too.

After leaving the medical bay, John noticed Ashley leaning against a wall nearby, clearly waiting for him to come out the room. After she saw him, Ashley smiled and waved John over. John walked to his new acquaintance, smiling a bit out of politeness.

"Hey, Commander… I'm glad to see you okay. And, I'm sorry about Jenkins; I hear he was an enthusiastic soldier." The young female said. John nodded his head a bit.

"He was part of this crew, even if he wasn't part of it long." He answered. Ashley nodded in understating.

"I understand, commander. I do admit… I'm not too sure about joining the crew… I'm like… a complete stranger to you people." She said, biting her lower lip. John raised his eyebrow a bit, not having been aware of the young sergeant joining in with the Normandy's crew. Ashley saw his surprise, and immediately explained.

"Captain Anderson offered me to join the crew… I… I hope that's not a problem." She said. John quickly shook his head.

"Oh, no! Of course not, it's fine by me!" The commander quickly assured. Ashley chuckled a bit, tugging John's arm.

"No worries, skipper… we're good." She said. After that, the two young soldiers made their way to the frigate's bridge.

After a couple of minutes, John and Ashley walked on the bridge, coming behind Joker, who sat in his seat, working on Normandy's consoles. Kaidan sat beside him, in front of his monitor.

"Good to see you up, John. Joker here was getting worried already." Kaidan said, smirking a bit. The pilot chuckled quietly.

"Yeah, well only because I made a bet on how long you'll be unconscious…" Joker admitted. Kaidan laughed at that.

"Yup, and you won, it seems… I guess I owe you that beer." The Staff Lieutenant remarked, patting the pilot's shoulder next to him. John shook his head a bit, to which Ashley giggled silently.

"Well, anyway. We're just about to exit through the relay, commander. Let's see that paid Alliance parking space privilege at work…" Joker stated. Kaidan chuckled, shaking his head.

"Yeah, because you'd never pay for a docking space." He said. Joker shook his head.

"Hell no, I'm freaking working for the Alliance, gotta have some workplace benefits." The pilot answered, working on the countless holographic monitors on the dashboard.

After a few moments the Mass Relay in the Serpent Nebula started turning its reactor wheels. Seconds later, the Normandy warped in to the Nebula, moving fast past the massive assumed Prothean device. The ship flew into the dense clouds, consisting of dust, gas and other particles. The colorful clouds parted away around the Normandy, like any other clouds would do on Earth. After a few seconds inside the interstellar clouds, the Normandy flew out of the Nebula, being blinded by the bright shiny light of the star system's sun. And then right in front of them was the Citadel, safely located inside the dense nebula clouds.

The Citadel was a massive space station, built by the Protheans thousands of years ago. The station had a large circular center, with five "arms" stretching out of it. These "wards" with the center point "presidium", housed over 45 million inhabitants, of which about 11 million were human.

The Normandy made its way towards the station, passing by a couple of transport and merchant ships, which made their way towards the Widow mass relay. John and Ashley looked through the cockpit's windows, seeing all the ships flying past them.

The ship then passed dozens of turian cruisers and frigates, which were stationed at the station as its defense fleet. The Citadel Defense Fleet consisted of over 800 ships, which most of were either turian cruisers or frigates. The asari and salarians also possessed a number of cruisers and frigates in defense of the station. The Alliance, being a newcomer in the galactic society, was only allowed to maintain about 20 warships for the defense of the Citadel. The fleet's flagship was the massive asari dreadnought Destiny Ascension, which put any ship in the Citadel space to shame, being colossally over 1500 meters large.

The Normandy now flew past the Ascension, Ashley gasped as she saw the massive asari ship.

"Look at the size of the Destiny Ascension! I never even imagined it was that huge!" The young female sergeant said in awe. John smirked a bit, as he looked at the colossal warship, being elegantly shaped, like most asari ships were.

"It's not that big…" Joker cut in, obviously not being a fan of another ship overcoming the Normandy. Ashley chuckled and looked at the pilot.

"Why so touchy, Joker?" She asked the bearded pilot. Joker shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm just saying, you need firepower too." Joker said, patting the dashboard in front of him, pointing out of the Normandy's advanced weapon systems. Ashley laughed again.

"Are you serious? That monster's main cannons could rip any Alliance ship to shreds!" She said, pointing at the passing warship. Joker just ignored her, smiling a bit.

"Good thing it's on our side then." Kaidan remarked. After that, Joker opened the transmitter system.

"Citadel flight control, this is the SSV Normandy, asking for landing permission at the presidium dock." The pilot said through the microphone.

As the Normandy flew past more warships, towards the circular center point of the station, the transmitter gave Joker an answer.

"Normandy, this is Citadel control, please forward the required verification codes." A turian voice said through the transmitter. Joker quickly glanced at John, who leaned on the pilot's chair. Anderson had given him the codes right before the mission on Eden Prime.

"Verification code; Autumn 09, council authorization 3699." John said to the microphone. After a couple of seconds, the turian responded.

"Verified, Commander Shepard, welcome to the Citadel. Docking bay B71 is clear for your arrival, Normandy." The flight controller said, shutting off the connection afterwards. Joker chuckled a bit.

"Well, now this is all grand and professional… regular ward docking bays require no fancy codes, just the payment or the authorization file." The pilot said. John rolled his eyes a bit, and walked away from the bridge, going to get ready for docking with the station.

In the next couple of minutes, the Normandy flew past the last defending warships, swirling around one turian frigate, and heading towards the presidium docking bays. The advanced frigate fired up its forward engines to break down its speed, as it closed in with the docking bay. Joker handled the docking well, calmly flying the ship to stop, and docked with the several docking clamps, which magnetically kept the ship in place. The boarding gate tunnel extended and docked with the ship's airlock as well, enabling the exit from the ship. The Normandy had officially arrived at the Citadel.

**15 minutes later…**

John leaned on a balcony rail with Kaidan and Ashley in a spacious presidium apartment. It was the office and living quarters for the human ambassador Donnel Udina, who frantically clenched his hands into fists, as he stood in front of three hologram displayers. The ambassador had met them a couple of minutes ago, and was now negotiating with the Citadel council. Anderson stood next to Udina, who was angry, to say the least.

"This is an outrage! The council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!" The human politician said in a loud voice. The holographic images of the three councilors showed clearly their disapproval for the ambassador's attitude.

"The turian's don't found colonies in the edges of the Terminus Systems, ambassador." The salarian councilor Valern said, crossing his hands over his chest.

"The human colonist were well aware of the dangers of such thing, a geth attack is unfortunate, but still out of the council's hands." The asari councilor Tevos said; her voice remaining calm and steady. Udina wasn't ready to stop there.

"And what about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue spectre, I demand action!" The human ambassador shouted determinately. The turian councilor Sparatus shook his head in disagreement.

"You don't get to make demands from the council, ambassador Udina." The turian said strongly.

"The Citadel Security is investigating your accusations against Saren. We we'll be able to hold a meeting regarding the evidence after the investigation has concluded, not before." Councilor Tevos said. After that statement, the three holographic council members disappeared. Udina sighed heavily in frustration, and turned towards Anderson.

"Captain Anderson, I see you brought half your crew with you…" The frustrated human said, looking at John and his squad.

"Just the team that was on Eden Prime. Seems like the council doesn't take our accusations against Saren well." The old captain noted. Udina crossed his arms.

"They definitely were not happy about it. Saren is their top operative… they won't easily believe our evidence, even if we had some…" The human ambassador explained. John turned around and walked next to Anderson.

"Saren is a danger to all of us. We have to prove his guilt to the council, at all costs." John said determinately. Udina shook his head a bit.

"I don't think you should be part of that, Commander. Your job was to prove your worthiness to the spectres, but instead; Nihlus ended up dead, and the beacon was destroyed." Udina said accusatively. Anderson lifted his hand in protest.

"That's Saren's fault, not John's!" Anderson said in John's defense. Udina sighed a bit, and looked down.

"Then we'd better hope we'll be able to provide evidence to support our accusations… otherwise this will end up badly for all of us." He said. Anderson and John both nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Anderson, come with me; we'll have to prepare our meeting with the council. Shepard, make your way to the council tower, top floor… I'll make sure you'll have the required clearances." Udina instructed. After that, the human ambassador walked out of the office, with Anderson following him. After the two had left, Kaidan and Ashley walked beside John, the young woman shaking her head.

"And that's why I hate politicians…" She said quietly, crossing her arms over her chest.

…**..**

The usually quiet atmosphere of Xanes, a small terrestrial moon over the uninhabitable planet Veles, was filled with sounds of gunfire, screams, and explosions. Xanes was a small human colony, housing a little over 400 people. It had been a small mining moon used by the batarians a couple of centuries ago, and was now the house for a small number of humans. The barren surface of the planet was not exactly a huge advertisement for the moon, which is why the population was small.

Dozens of geth warships floated in the planet's skies, their countless of fighters flying around with speed. Several gunships and dropships had brought in geth troopers, which had quickly overcome the colony's small militia. Two geth troopers dragged a helpless human victim towards their master, who was standing in the middle of the small town's center. Saren glanced over the dark skinned human, who looked at him with fear.

"Please, sir… why are you doing this?" The human asked in a shaky voice. The turian spectre laughed a bit, placing his hands on his waist.

"Or what? Are you going to stop me, human?" Saren asked his victim. The human man breathed heavily and fast.

"But… but we have done nothing… why do this…? Please… mercy…" The man said weakly and quietly. Saren chuckled a bit, looking around the destruction his geth troops had inflicted.

"Tell me, are you afraid of death?" The turian asked the scared human. At that moment, a loud noise carved into the human's head. The massive figure of the alien vessel Saren commandeered slowly descended behind the clouds in the sky, approaching the ground. The whole sky was darkened by this massive ship. The human man looked at the ship with fear, putting his hands to his chest.

"Allah is the greatest… glory to be his…" The man whispered quietly. Saren laughed, looking at the scared man.

"That one of your gods, human? Whatever it is… it won't be helping you today…" The turian spectre said. The massive ship landed right on top of them, its huge legs shaking the ground, as they touched down.

After a few moments, an asari walked behind Saren, being accompanied by two asari bodyguards. The mature asari cleared her throat, getting Saren's attention.

"We've indentified the ship that touched down on Eden Prime. The Normandy, an Alliance vessel… it was under the command of Captain Anderson." The asari said. Saren widened his eyes a bit, looking at his ally.

"Anderson…? But what about the beacon?" Saren asked the asari. The matriarch waited for a moment, before answering.

"One of the humans used it… after which it was destroyed…" She told. That made Saren stand silently. The massive ship then roared loudly, and Saren clenched his fists in anger, and roared like an animal. The rogue spectre shouted loudly, and paced around for a bit, before suddenly pulling out his M-77 Paladin pistol, and shooting the human hostage. After the human man had fallen down dead, Saren calmed down a bit. The turian panted, and stared at the asari, his face full of anger.

"That human… must be… eliminated!" The furious turian ordered. The asari smiled slightly in pleasure, signaling her bodyguards to follow her, as she walked away. Before Saren could do anything else, one of his turian followers walked to him.

"The council is trying to contact you, sir…" The turian said. Saren's eyes widened a bit, and took a deep breath.

"Well… no reason to let them wait. Jam the tracking signals… they must not know where we are." Saren ordered, making his way towards one of the colony's houses, which had been claimed by the geth forces.

…**..**

The Council Tower turbolift came to halt on the top floor, which housed the Citadel Council's chambers, where they occasionally held meetings and other negotiations with the numerous ambassadors. After the elevator had stopped, the glass door slid down in the floor, making John and his team able to exit. The three Alliance soldiers walked inside the large chambers, ascending up a set of stairs.

On top of the stairs, two turians were apparently arguing. The other, younger looking turian wore a black-blue armor, used by the C-Sec police officers. The other, older turian, wore a suit, made for C-Sec officers, who didn't do field work.

"I just need some more time! Stall them." The younger turian police said to his superior. The older turian shook his head in slight disbelief.

"Stall the council? You're out of your head, Garrus. This isn't going anywhere, your investigation is over." The superior officer said, striking a hostile glance at the younger turian, and then walked away. The young turian officer, with blue face markings, shook his head in frustration. As John walked near him, he seemed to notice the human soldier. The turian turned to look at John.

"Commander Shepard? I'm Garrus Vakarian; I was leading the investigation against Saren… well, up until now." The turian explained. John stroked his chin a bit.

"I guess that didn't go so well, seeing how that other turian reacted…" He noted. Garrus chuckled quietly, looking towards his turian superior officer, who was walking away.

"Executor Pallin is not really forthcoming in doing what's necessary to prove Saren's guilt… bureaucracy has stopped me from proving his guilt, and it pissed me off, to be honest." The turian police officer remarked, shaking his head. John nodded in understatement.

"Well, there'll always be bumps in the road, officer… good luck in the future; I'll do what I can to prove Saren's guiltiness." John assured. Garrus nodded, and smiled a bit, shaking John's hand.

"Good luck, Commander, I hope you'll succeed." The turian said, and left walking towards the elevator, after shaking hands with the human commander.

After the friendly turian police officer had left, John made his way towards the centre of the Council Chambers, where the council was waiting. As he arrived to the audience area, Anderson was waiting at the bottom of a few steps of stairs, which lead to the audience pedestal, where ambassador Udina was talking with the council.

"There you are, come on… the meeting is already under way." The old Alliance captain said, escorting his former ward with him. Ashley and Kaidan stayed back, standing at the back of the pedestal.

As John walked beside Anderson towards the human ambassador, he could see the large hologram of a turian, presumably Saren, looking over the meeting. Udina was fiercely trying to get his word through.

"The geth attack on Eden Prime is a dire problem, but there is nothing to point at Saren's involvement" Councilor Tevos said. Saren nodded his head, crossing his arms.

"These accusations are ludicrous. Nihlus was a good spectre, and an old friend." The turian spectre said in his defense. Anderson frowned and spoke up.

"That just gave you the chance to get him off guard!" The old human captain accused. Saren smirked a bit, looking at the human captain below him.

"Captain Anderson, what a surprise seeing you here. You're always present when the Alliance makes accusations against me." The turian spectre said, now turning his look at John.

"And this must be your protégé, Commander John Shepard. His performance at Eden Prime was… below average, as I hear…" The turian said mockingly.

"You were the one to attack the colony! And you murdered Nihlus!" John accused, pointing his finger at the spectre. Saren smirked and shook his head.

"My, my… such accusations, young Shepard… and can you possibly prove any of that?" The turian asked. John bit his lip, and frowned heavily, there wasn't any real evidence he could show the council. Saren laughed quietly, seeing the speechless human commander.

"Didn't think so, Shepard. Your failure at the colony just proves why humanity is not ready to join the Council… you're not even ready to join the spectres." He stated, turning to look at the council. Udina had had enough.

"He has no right to say that! It's not his decision!" The human ambassador yelled. Councilor Tevos seemed to agree, and held her hand up.

"Shepard's admittance into the spectres is not the purpose of this meeting." The calm asari councilor said, looking at the turian spectre. Saren crossed his arms.

"This meeting has no purpose! They have nothing to prove any of these ridiculous accusations! Time is wasting for all of us!" Saren said loudly. Udina wasn't going to give up.

"An eyewitness saw him murder Nihlus in cold blood!" The human said. Councilor Valern cleared his throat, and spoke up.

"Your only eyewitness was one lone dockworker, who was killed by the geth. There is nothing else to verify what he saw, especially if he's dead himself." The salarian councilor said. Captain Anderson then stepped forward a bit.

"We still have one piece of evidence; Commander Shepard had a vision from the beacon…" The human captain started, only to be cut off by the turian spectre.

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How could I possibly defend myself against such preposterous things?" Saren said, looking at the councilors. Councilor Sparatus crossed his arms and nodded.

"I agree; our evidence has to be based on provable and demonstrable facts… not some wild dreams or visions had by one individual." The turian councilor stated.

It looked real bad for John and his allies; they had no way of proving Saren's guilt. Councilor Tevos looked around her fellow councilors. Sparatus shook his head, looking at his colleague. Valern on the other hand stroked his chin, thinking something. Tevos then turned to look upon the three humans, standing on the audience pedestal.

"Do you have more to add, gentlemen?" The asari councilor asked. Udina frustratingly crossed his arms, and looked at the ground. John sighed quietly.

"You've made your choice, councilors… there's no point…" The human commander remarked. The asari councilor then nodded, and stood straighter on her pedestal.

"Due to no evidence against council spectre Saren Arterius, all of his charges are dropped." Tevos declared. Udina clenched his teeth together, he couldn't believe this failed. Saren looked smug, smirking and glaring at the three humans.

"I'm glad justice was served…" The turian said, and after that, his hologram disappeared. Councilor Tevos quickly glanced at her colleagues, and then looked at John.

"This meeting is adjourned." The councilor declared, ending the audience with the three humans.

John and Anderson turned around quietly, walking away from the pedestal. Udina stayed for a couple of seconds, trying to think of what had just happened. After that, he quietly walked off as well, holding his head down.

A few moments later, Udina arrived beside John and Anderson, who were standing in one of the council chamber's waiting rooms. Kaidan and Ashley stood a couple of meters away.

"It was a mistake bringing you here, Anderson… you and Saren share too much history." The human ambassador said. John frowned a bit, not liking the way Udina was accusing his former mentor.

"That doesn't matter, ambassador… Saren is guilty, and we have to find more evidence against him… that's key." The human captain said determinately.

John agreed, but getting that information could prove harder than it seemed.

"What about Garrus, that C-Sec officer? He was investigating Saren." Kaidan suggested. Ashley nodded.

"That's right; he could've founded something we missed." The young sergeant noted. John nodded in agreement; Garrus really seemed to be a good lead.

"Any idea how we can locate him?" John asked Anderson and Udina. The old human captain nodded.

"Yes, I have a contact working at the presidium. His name is Barla Von; he's a volus financial advisor, and an agent for the Shadow Broker." Anderson explained. John raised his eyebrow; he didn't expect Anderson to have acquaintances, who worked for the Shadow Broker, the mysterious and powerful intelligence trader.

"You think he'll know where Garrus is?" John asked his captain. Anderson shrugged his shoulders.

"If not directly, then he'll definitely be able to point you at someone who does know where he is." Anderson explained. John bit his lip and nodded, there weren't any other options.

"You should look into that lead, Shepard. I'll be going through some things with Captain Anderson here, good luck." Udina said, signaling Anderson to follow him.

After that, John signaled Kaidan and Ashley to follow him, and the trio left the council chambers, heading towards the elevator they had arrived on earlier.

**Ten minutes later…**

The calm atmosphere in the presidium made John feel like home. The lush green trees planted beside the numerous fountains and fake lakes brought the feeling of Earth to the Citadel. The presidium was the epitome of galactic peace and cooperation, as all the Citadel space species commuted in its numerous high class stores and other entertainment centers.

John leaned over a railing on one of the many small bridges, connecting the two sides of the presidium to each other, between the large lakes. In front of him, and his squad, was the large scale model of a mass relay. The thought of the protheans managing to build all this, and then lose them so abruptly, was suspicious to John, but he still respected the elegant and advanced architecture, that was found on the Citadel.

A lone keeper, a member of the mysterious race of semi-sentient insectoid aliens, who silently took care of the Citadel, working on its countless engines and controls, calmly walked past the three humans. The keepers had been a mystery for as long as the Citadel had been the seat of galactic society, no one knew where they had come from originally, or if they were genetically engineered by the protheans. Kaidan looked at the insect, walking towards a small control panel.

"The keepers never seem to take breaks… their only purpose is just to take care of the Citadel." The young human lieutenant said, observing the alien worker.

"They're kinda freaky, if you ask me…" Ashley said quietly, glancing quickly at the keeper. Kaidan chuckled to that.

"Are all aliens freaky to you?" The young human man asked his partner. Ashley frowned a bit, and shook her head.

"I'm not a racist, Kaidan… I think the other races are as good as us… as long as they contribute to the society as much as we do." Ashley answered. John cleared his throat a bit, and pointed towards a small shop located nearby.

"That's the 'Von financial center'; let's go meet this volus agent." The young human commander said, starting to head towards the store. Ashley and Kaidan followed him, still looking around the beautiful sights of the presidium.

A few moments later, the trio walked in the small building. The store was small, and empty, only one volus was standing behind a corner at the other end of the store. John made his way to that volus, assuming him to be Barla Von. The volus noticed his customers approaching, and put down a small datapad on the counter he stood behind.

"*ghh* What's this? One of the Earth-clan?" The volus said, looking at John, who stopped on the other side of the counter. The volus seemed to recognize him.

"*ghh* Ah, and a famous one. You're the one called Shepard. *ghh* I admire your service during the Skyllian Blitz, truly courageous work. *ghh*" The volus said. John raised his eyebrow, and scratched the back of his head a bit. The volus seemed to know much.

"You've… got me in a disadvantage…" The human commander said. The volus nodded.

"*ghh* I apologize, Commander. Information is one of my important tools. I am Barla Von, a financial advisor. *ghh* Do you wish to seek for investment advice, or maybe deposit opportunities in many of the banks on the Citadel? *ghh*" Barla Von asked officially, clearly keeping his true allegiance hidden.

"I know you're an agent for the Shadow Broker…" John said, looking at the volus. Barla Von was quiet for a moment, until answering again.

"*ghh* Ah, but of course… Captain Anderson must've told you about that, right? *ghh* I hope he's been successful lately." Barla Von said, before continuing.

"Yes, I am an agent for the Shadow Broker. *ghh* I assume you're in need of some information, Commander? *ghh*" The volus asked John. Nodding, John leaned on the counter.

"Yes, I need to know the location of a C-Sec officer named Garrus Vakarian." He explained. The volus operative nodded, activating his omni-tool, and browsing through numerous holographic pages.

"*ghh* The Shadow Broker doesn't have informants in the C-Sec; he prefers a more… direct approach on things. *ghh* Many officers however are under surveillance, one of them being a human Captain named Harkin *ghh*, he seems to be the superior of this Garrus Vakarian." Barla Von explained, looking through his omni-tool. John nodded, putting that name in his memory.

"So, we'll need to find Harkin, and ask for Garrus' whereabouts… where is Harkin right now?" He asked the volus agent. Barla Von browsed through his omni-tool again, answering a moment later.

"*ghh* He's a regular patron at the Chora's Den nightclub… the owner of the club is also an agent for the Shadow Broker *ghh*… or… well… used to be… *ghh*" Barla Von told John. The young human commander raised his eyebrow.

"Used to be?" He asked. Barla Von closed off his omni-tool, shaking his head.

"*ghh* Nothing you need to be concerned about, Commander. *ghh* The Shadow Broker has everything under control…" The volus agent assured. John nodded, and turned around, signaling his squad to follow behind him.

"Let's go to Chora's Den, and meet this Harkin…" John said, not exactly looking forward to meeting a police officer, who spends his time in a nightclub.

**15 minutes later…**

The booming bass almost blew John's eardrums, as he entered the Chora's Den nightclub with his two team mates. As they looked around, the three human soldiers could really only see drunken patrons, and dancing strippers. Kaidan cleared his throat a bit, looking at the dancers.

"Uh… I can see why this place is popular…" The young lieutenant said. Ashley smirked, and playfully closed her companion's mouth with her hand on his jaw.

"Hey, don't make me slip on your drool, lieutenant." The young sergeant said, smirking a bit.

"Cutter the chatter, let's find Harkin." John cut in quickly, looking around the club.

Soon enough, John spotted a middle aged human man in C-Sec uniform, sitting at a table, a drink in his hand. Rolling his eyes, John made his way over to the fallen officer.

As they approached Harkin, John and his companions saw a big krogan arguing nearby with a krogan, and two human bouncers.

"Just leave, Wrex, Fist ain't coming out." The krogan bouncer said to the other krogan. The krogan with a red head crest took a step forward.

"No matter if he's coming out, let him know this; I will kill him." The krogan threatened. The krogan bouncer didn't seem to be concerned.

"Talk all you want, Wrex… it's not getting you anywhere." The bouncer said. The krogan named Wrex shook his head, and turned around, heading away from the bouncers. Before continuing further, Wrex turned around, and glanced at the bouncers.

"And if I hear that Fist did something to that little girl, I'll cut off his balls, and eat them!" The krogan threatened, before turning around again, and heading out. Harkin, who sat nearby, chuckled and opened his mouth.

"Yeah, that's right… get out of here, you brute." The slightly drunken human said. Wrex glanced at the police officer, and calmly walked to him, suddenly smashing his hand on the table, making it hit the human man straight in his jaw, throwing him off his seat. After that, the krogan walked away, bumping into John a bit.

"Out of my way, I've got no quarrel with you…" The krogan said quietly, heading out of the club. Not really wanting to pay more attention to it, John just walked to Harkin, who slowly got up, and sat back on his seat. The human man saw his new company arriving beside him.

"Alliance military, eh? I was going to recruit, when I was young, but instead came to work at C-Sec… biggest mistake of my life…" The officer lamented. John didn't really care to hear the drunken man's life story, so he cut to the chase.

"Harkin, right? I was told you could point me to one of your subordinates. A turian officer named Garrus Vakarian." John explained. Harkin chuckled quietly, taking a sip of his drink.

"Garrus… what a pushover, wanting nothing more than to prove himself to be more than just a pointless police grunt… yeah, sure… I think I know where he is…" Harkin said, staying quiet then, and continuing to drink.

"So… where is he?" John asked, raising his eyebrow. Harkin burped quietly, making Ashley roll her eyes in disgust.

"If I were to guess, he's sniffing around Dr. Michel's clinic again… he either has the hots for that doctor, or thinks that something's going on there…" The human police officer said. John nodded, and slowly turned around.

"Have fun… officer." He said, starting to walk away from Harking.

"Yeah… just let me drink in peace…" The pathetic officer said, continuing to jug down the drink.

After that, John walked out of the nightclub with his squad, sighing a bit.

"Okay… so now let's head out to this Dr. Michel's clinic." He said, walking off the premises of Chora's Den, Kaidan and Ashley closely following.

**Ten minutes later…**

Dr. Michel's clinic was located nearby, in the wards near Chora's Den. John walked to the front door of the medical office, opening it. As soon as he entered the clinic with his squad, he saw Garrus crouching down behind a wall, quickly putting a finger on his mouth, to signal John and his squad to be quiet. John then noticed two human men standing in front of a woman in doctor's uniform, threatening her.

"I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" The doctor said, pleading the three men. The leading grunt smirked.

"Smart move, doc… now, if Garrus comes around, you just-" The man said, but was cut short, when he noticed John and his squad at the doorway. The goon grabbed Dr. Michel, and drew a pistol on her forehead.

"Who are you!?" The grunt demanded, threatening the doctor with his pistol. In a second, John and his squad had their weapons pointed at the criminals.

"Let her go!" John ordered. Before anything else happened, Garrus quickly emerged from behind his cover, and shot the man holding Dr. Michel straight through his head. Blood splattered, as the goon fell on the ground, dead. The two other criminals gasped, and stepped back, but Garrus took them out too, shooting one of them through the head, and the other through his chest. After the men were dead, Garrus turned to John.

"Good timing, Shepard. Your distraction gave me a clear shot at him." The turian police officer said. John put away his pistol, looking at the three dead criminals.

"You took him out clean… but it was risky… he had a hostage." John said, reminding Garrus about Dr. Michel, who stood in place, being frightened. Garrus quickly walked to the doctor, and started comforting her. 

"Dr. Michel… are you alright? It's okay now." The turian said softly. The human doctor nodded, wiping off her tears.

"Yes… yes, I'm alright, Garrus… thank you." The woman said, looking at her savior. Dr. Michel then quickly but softly kissed Garrus' cheek, making John and his team raise their eyebrows. Garrus blushed a bit for that, and cleared his throat. As time was wasting, John took a couple of steps forward.

"I hope you're alright, doctor. What were those men doing here?" John asked the young woman, who was leaning on Garrus.

"They were… sent by Fist… he wanted to make sure I hadn't told anyone about the quarian…" Michel explained, her voice still shaking a bit. John raised his eyebrow.

"What quarian?" He asked. Michel swallowed, and started telling her story.

"Not too long ago, there was this young quarian girl, who came to seek help. She was injured, and scared. I helped her, and she told me that she was going to meet Fist, hoping to find safety in exchange for some information." The woman explained. John's eyes widened, that quarian could have some information on Saren. Before he could talk, Garrus spoke up.

"Fist isn't working for the Shadow Broker anymore… I think he's answering to Saren now." The turian officer said. Michel looked surprised.

"Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him." The woman said, shaking her head. John quickly looked at Garrus.

"We need to get to Fist now! If the quarian went to him, he could've already given her to Saren!" He said in haste, time was running out. Garrus nodded his head.

"We should head to Chora's Den immediately. I also hear that the Shadow Broker has a krogan mercenary called Wrex after Fist… we might get his help in getting to him." Garrus suggested. John assumed that Wrex was the same krogan they saw earlier, but he shook his head.

"We have no time! We need to find that quarian now!" John said determinately. As the three Alliance soldiers were about to leave, Garrus got John's attention.

"Commander, wait. I know this is your fight… but, I want on it." The turian police officer said. John raised his eyebrow.

"But, you're with C-Sec." The human commander said. Garrus nodded.

"Yes… well… I think I won't be for long, this business with Saren has really put me on edge with my superiors." He explained. John thought for a second, and then offered his hand to the young turian.

"Welcome aboard then, Garrus." He said, smiling. Garrus shook his hand, smiling thankfully.

"Thank you, Shepard. I won't let you down, I promise." The turian assured.

After that, John led his three squadmates towards Chora's Den again.

…**..**

As the four-man squad approached the entrance to the nightclub, they immediately noticed that something was up.

"It looks closed." Garrus noted, looking at the entrance.

Suddenly the sound of gunshots alerted John and his squad. John frowned a bit.

"Let's go." He ordered, rushing in to the club.

As the four soldiers entered the nightclub, they immediately noticed how ravaged it was. There were corpses lying around everywhere, and much of the club's properties were destroyed or damaged.

As John walked more in to the club, his squad right behind him, he noticed a turian man, walking to an injured guard, and cold bloodily executing him. The turian then noticed the intruders, raising his rifle at them.

"Wrex! We have company." The turian soldier yelled, pointing his gun at John.

After a moment, the same brutish krogan warrior walked to the turian, seeing John and his squad.

"You again? What do you want, human?" The krogan warrior, Wrex asked, reloading his Claymore shotgun. John frowned, and took a couple of steps forward.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance. Put your weapons down, we're here for Fist." John explained. Telling his name seemed to surprise Wrex, whose eyes widened a bit. The krogan brute put his hand on his turian companion's rifle, lowering it.

"Shepard, eh? I've heard a lot about you. You're a strong warrior, Shepard, like me… that is respectable." The krogan said, smirking a bit. John raised his eyebrow, not being sure how to react.

"You want Fist? Well, so do us. Me and Solas here came to do the Shadow Broker's dirty work." Wrex explained, the turian beside him nodding his head. John shook his head.

"I need information from Fist, I need him alive." He said clearly. Wrex nodded.

"Sure, whatever… but he dies after it." The krogan warrior said, walking off the club's main lobby with his turian companion. John frowned a bit, and signaled his squad to follow him.

A few moments later, they arrived at Fist's private quarters. Wrex simply kicked the door in, and walked inside with Solas beside him. As John entered the room with his squad, he saw Wrex already holding Fist at gunpoint, who was shaking.

"Please… don't kill me. What do you want?" The scared human thug asked. Solas shook his head, and quickly kneecapped Fist in his stomach, making him fall on his knees. John walked in front of the thug, taking out his pistol as well. Being though was the only option now.

"Tell me where the quarian is, and I won't blow off your kneecaps." He demanded angrily. Wrex chuckled a bit to that. Fist shook a bit, being scared.

"She's not her anymore, I sent her to meet some men." He explained hastily. John sighed in frustration, violently pulling Fist up, and pressing his pistol against the thug's chin.

"Tell me where, now!" The commander demanded. Fist quickly replied.

"In an alley nearby, I swear! I sent her to meet the Shadow Broker, but she didn't know that no one meets him personally… so… I lied to her. But instead of Shadow Broker or any of his men, she'll meet Saren's men." The human thug explained. John's eyes widened, and he quickly holstered his pistol, making his way out of the room.

Wrex then smirked, and grabbed Fist's head with one hand, snapping his head. As Fist fell dead on the floor, Ashley gasped and grabbed John's arm, pointing at Wrex.

"No time, Ashley! We need to get to that quarian now!" He said, not wanting to waste time on arguing about killing a gangster, who might have killed an innocent girl, and cost them a information giver on Saren.

**Three minutes later…**

John rushed past many people, running into an alley near the Chora's Den. His squad followed him closely, Wrex and Solas also tagging along. A few moments later, they arrived at the meeting point. They could see a young quarian standing in front of three turian men, who talked with her. John hastily walked towards them.

"Did you bring it?" One of the turians asked. The quarian girl looked suspicious.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" She asked. The turian smirked a bit, and took a step closer to her.

"Don't worry about that, just give us the evidence." The turian said then. The girl took a couple of steps back then.

"No way. The deal's off…" She said. The three turians then glanced at each other, and started to walk towards the quarian threateningly.

The girl was completely unarmed, and would've stood no chance against the three turian soldiers. But suddenly, the three turians were surrounded by blue energy, and flung back. John lifted the turian men in the air with his biotic powers, slamming them down on the ground, destroying their armor, and breaking their bones. After that, he walked to the quarian, ordering his squadmates to shoot the turian thugs. The quarian girl backed away a bit again, not being sure whether to be grateful, or scared.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The quarian asked quietly. John lifted his hand to calm her.

"It's alright; we're here to keep you safe." He assured. The quarian was quiet for a moment, before then nodding.

"Okay… I… I believe you. Who are you?" She asked. John smiled a bit, and introduced himself.

"My name is John Shepard; I'm a commander in the Alliance Navy." He said in a friendly tone. The quarian girl's eyes widened, as John said his name. She seemed to suddenly get even more nervous.

"Oh… oh…. oh… I… I see… well, I… I thank you, Commander. I'm in your dept…. Fist set me up." The girl stuttered quietly. John smiled, and walked to the girl, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"I know… but don't worry; I'll keep you safe now." He assured. The quarian looked straight into his eyes, and John felt his heart jump. It was as if he'd seen those eyes before, but he couldn't remember when or where. Ashley seemed to raise her eyebrow in annoyance, as she saw the two look each other for a long time.

"Uh… well, I… I suppose you rescued me for this data I hold?" The quarian asked. John quickly came to his senses from his sudden daydream, and nodded quickly.

"Oh… yes! Yes, absolutely, miss." He said, smiling a bit, being embarrassed. The girl then giggled quietly.

"Hih, well, I'll be more than happy to give it to you, in exchange for protection." She said then. John nodded again, blushing a bit.

"Yes, yes… I'll protect you… I mean, the Alliance will… heh…" He said quickly.

Kaidan then cleared his throat, getting the two's attention.

"We should take her to ambassador Udina, he wants to see this evidence himself. I'm sure." The young lieutenant suggested. Ashley huffed quietly.

"Yeah, we should get this over with fast…" She said, crossing her arms, in a bit annoyed manner. Garrus nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we now have the evidence against Saren, hopefully." The turian said.

John then quickly looked at the quarian girl, smiling, and showing her to come with him and his squad. As she nodded, and started to follow, the group then left the alley, heading back to the presidium.

As they walked, the girl constantly glanced at John, thinking to herself.

"Can it really be him? I thought he died…" She though in her head. She quickly then looked the other way, as John glanced over his shoulder to her. John could swear he had met this quarian before, but he had no idea when or where, and it bothered him.

****Okay, finally, here's chapter seven for you! **

**I'm sorry it took this long, but I spent nearly two weeks in Germany with my girlfriend. I can now continue working on this.**

**I really hope you enjoy this chapter, I enjoyed making it. I decided not to go into much detail in the Citadel running around, since to be fair… it's boring as hell. **

**I also won't really do any side missions in this story, only those which are important to the main plot and stuff.**

**Please give me reviews, guys; I'm really disappointed to see that only one of you (Phil) does review regularly. I thank him for the effort, and hope really badly, that more of you will write them… it's like the payment for me to write these for you, and entertain you, dear readers.**

**But anyway, have a good one, and have a nice spring!****


	9. Chapter 8: The First Human Spectre

**Chapter 8: The First Human Spectre**

The high orbit of the small moon of Xanes was filled with dozens of geth cruisers and frigates, as well as hundreds of fighters. The small human colony had been destroyed completely, and the geth fleet was leaving their destruction site. The massive alien dreadnaught, the flagship of the large geth fleet, floated slowly in the empty space, being surrounded by the hundreds of geth ships.

Inside the huge vessel, Saren Arterius leaned on a wall, holding his head with his left hand, as if he'd have a bad headache. Behind him, his asari ally walked from behind a corner, clearing her throat to get the turian's attention. Saren grunted and opened his eyes, which were glowing brightly blue, like a husk's eyes. The turian spectre traitor blinked once, and the glow was gone. Saren turned around and looked at his ally.

"What is it?" The turian asked in a raspy voice. The asari matriarch, dressed in a long black dress, and a black idyllic headdress, walked to a small console, and activated it. A hologram of a planet appeared between the two then.

"Our scouts have located what you were looking for. Feros; a small human colony world in the Theseus system, in the Attican Beta cluster; we believe the Thorian is located somewhere on the planet." The asari explained, looking at the planet's hologram, adding a blip on top of a large area.

"The old ruins of the Prothean city of Thesy'lia is now the headquarters for the human colonists, named Zhu's Hope. Our scouts met no resistance at the local Exogeni Corporation's offices, located in a prothean skyscraper's ruins." She continued. Saren stroked his chin, his mandibles twitching.

"They conquered the building?" The turian spectre asked. The asari matriarch nodded her head.

"Yes, they are now waiting for orders." She explained. Saren nodded, and sighed a bit.

"Tell the geth to get any information out of the scientist and staff, if nothing comes up, or we get what we need, they are obligated to execute the entire population…." The turian ordered. The asari advisor was quiet for a moment, but nodded then.

"As you wish." She answered, walking out of the room. Before she left however, Saren grunted and got her attention. The turian was shaking a bit.

"Do not forget…. I need one of your servants on Feros… I will take the majority of the fleet there. You will go to Noveria with a small task force." Saren said in a raspy voice. The asari matriarch raised her eyebrows.

"Are you sure it's wise to take a risk with Noveria? The rachni are unpredictable…" She said, being a bit unsure. Saren's eyes widened, and he suddenly charged a bit forward, grabbing his advisor by her arms.

"Do not question me! We need the rachni! If they're really back…. I need their power!" The turian yelled in a small rage. His ally kept herself calm, looking directly into the deranged turian's eyes. After a moment, Saren let go of her, panting a bit.

"What about your daughter? Have our scouts located her?" He asked, calming his breath. The asari's eyes widened just a bit, and she shook her head.

"We don't know her exact location… but we believe she's somewhere in the Knossos system, in the Artemis Tau cluster…" She answered quietly. Saren nodded, his mandibles twitching even more rapidly now.

"Good, good… I'll send a part of the fleet to look for her… we need her help as well." The turian said, turning around, and walking towards a chair, surrounded by countless tubes and other electrical equipment. As Saren sat down on the chair, he looked at his asari ally.

"Follow my orders, Benezia… go to Noveria… now." The turian spectre said, turning his head back, and closing his eyes. After that, the asari matriarch took a deep breath, and walked out of the room, vanishing from sight.

As Saren sat on the chair, he suddenly started holding his head. Various sounds and noises filled his head, making him grunt in pain. The turian squeezed his hands into fists, grunting rather loudly.

"Argh! Stop it! Uunh." He grunted, holding his head. A strong metallic voice echoed in his head, making his brain hurt.

"**I can sense your fear, Saren… you have doubts**." The voice said in his head. Saren squeezed his fists even harder.

"No! I fear nothing! I'm a spectre!" The turian fought against the demeaning voice. The voice continued to speak to him.

"**Doubting your strength is a weakness…**" The voice remarked. That made Saren roar like an animal. The turian spectre pushed himself violently up from the chair, throwing aside a small tray, lying on the armrest.

"I am NOT weak!" He shouted, looking up at the ceiling. The voice was quiet for a bit, before speaking to him again, making Saren hold his head again in pain.

"**You will see that you lack the required strength to defeat all your enemies, Saren… you know I can provide that strength to you…**" The voice suggested. Saren was quiet for a moment, before yelling again.

"No! I will succeed without them, I assure you!" The turian spectre yelled, sitting on his chair again, breathing heavily.

"**So be it… but I know you'll change your mind…**" The voice answered, and after that, stayed quiet. Saren sighed in relief, as his pain was now gone.

Outside the small room, the massive alien ship floated slowly with the rest of the geth fleet, setting its course towards Feros.

…**..**

The shiny metallic floor on one of the alleys in the Grandur ward of the Citadel trembled, as the large krogan warrior Wrex stomped behind John and his small squad. The old battlemaster had decided to ally himself with the young human commander in his fight against Saren. Wrex respected honorable warriors, and never wanted to miss a big fight.

The young quarian girl, who John had rescued earlier, still showed her gratitude and thanks for her earlier rescue. She and John walked beside each other, the young human talking to her in friendly manner. Ashley walked right behind them, and clearly showed a bit of irritation on her face.

The turian mercenary Solas, who accompanied Wrex, was looking around a bit nervously. Wrex had noticed his partner acting strangely ever since they had rescued the quarian.

Suddenly, the turian mercenary fixed his eyes on the young quarian, and quickly drew his rifle, aiming at her. John, who randomly glanced behind himself, saw the turian aiming his weapon at the just rescued damsel. The commander reacted in an instant, wrapping his arms around the quarian, and pulling her away from the turian's line of fire.

Just as Solas was about to fire, the strong krogan hand of Wrex grabbed the barrel of his rifle, and crushed it. The mighty krogan warrior then grabbed his traitorous partner by his throat, lifting him up in the air.

"Thought I could trust you not to stoop this low, Solas…" Wrex said, strangling his now former companion. John calmly let go of the quarian girl he just had saved again, and walked beside Wrex, looking at the turian traitor, who was struggling in the krogan's grip.

"You… have no idea…. what's at stake, Wrex… Shepard is going to doom us all…" The turian mercenary said, struggling to get air. John frowned, as he listened to the turian's words. Wrex chuckled a bit, still strangling Solas.

"And Saren then will save us all by destroying human colonies with the geth?" The krogan warlord asked. Solas coughed, starting to really lose air.

"Saren… is only doing a favor… for the galaxy… some die… for the good of everyone else…" Solas explained, his eyes starting to lose focus. Wrex growled quietly, pulling Solas straight to his face.

"Like they did with the genophage?" The krogan asked, looking straight into his partner's eyes. After that, Wrex suddenly crushed the turian merc's throat, killing him instantly. The krogan warlord dropped the dead turian on the floor, breathing quite heavily through his nostrils. John wasn't so happy about that execution, and tapped Wrex's shoulder, getting the krogan's attention.

"You shouldn't have killed him; we could've gotten information out of him." The young commander said. Wrex shrugged his shoulders, walking past John.

"Old habits die hard, I guess…" He said plainly, walking past Kaidan, Ashley and Garrus.

After the krogan had walked past her, Ashley turned to look at John, her face clearly saying "he's going to be trouble". John sighed a bit, and signaled his followers to come with him. He walked to the quarian girl, and started to escort her towards ambassador Udina's apartment again, with a slight smile.

**Ten minutes later…**

Ambassador Udina frustratingly sighed, as John approached him from behind, having arrived a moment ago.

"You're not making my life easy, Shepard… firefights in the wards, an all out slaughter at Chora's Den, do you know how many-.." Udina said, being cut short, as he noticed John's rather strange squad, looking at the quarian and Wrex. The ambassador raised his eyebrows.

"What's this? A krogan and a quarian? What are you up to, Commander?" Udina asked, glancing between John and his alien allies. John put his hands behind his back, standing straight.

"I believe this young quarian can help us prove Saren's guilt." John answered, quickly looking at the quarian girl.

"Oh… I see. Well, that certainly is good news for a change…" The ambassador said, turning to look at the girl. Anderson also walked beside Udina, wanting to hear what's going on.

"Perhaps we should start from the beginning, miss…?" The ambassador asked, looking at the quarian. The girl quickly glanced at John, and then started talking.

"My name is Tali… Tali'Zorah nar Raaya." The girl introduced herself.

That name snapped something in John's brain, his eyes widened a lot. Where had he heard that name before? It was so familiar. As John spent the next seconds pondering on where he had heard that name before, Udina continued the conversation with Tali.

"We don't see many quarians around here, why did you leave the flotilla?" The ambassador asked her. Tali quickly glanced at John again, before answering again.

"I was on my pilgrimage, my rite of passage." She explained. John knew about the quarian pilgrimages; whenever a quarian would reach maturity by turning 22, they'd leave the Migrant Fleet, in order to provide something valuable for the fleet. Quarians held the good of the fleet above most other things in their life, all of them were a one big "family".

John then shook his head, still thinking of Tali's name; he still couldn't figure out where he had heard her name before. Not wanting to drift off to his thoughts, he opened his mouth.

"What did you find?" He asked the young quarian girl. Tali turned to look at John, and started explaining.

"A few weeks before the geth attacked Eden Prime, they began to move rapidly throughout the Terminus Systems. Since the geth haven't left the Veil for three centuries, I got curious about why they are here now. I followed a small geth patrol on a small moon, and waited for one of them to split up from the group, and then I deactivated it, and harvested its memory core." Tali explained. Anderson raised his eyebrows, and spoke up.

"I thought the geth fry their memory cores, after being deactivated." The older human captain said. John noted that, looking at Tali.

"How were you able to keep the memory core from destroying itself?" He asked the quarian girl. Tali chuckled quietly.

"I'm a quarian, my people created the geth… we know them better than anyone. I was quick and efficient, so I was able to remove the core, before the unit self-destructed its inner programs and memory cores." Tali explained, smiling behind her mask. Ashley rolled her eyes at the other end of the room, being a bit annoyed.

"But anyway, I recovered this audio file from the memory core, and I'm certain it'll be of use to you." Tali said, activating her omni-tool. Udina stroked his chin, as he prepared to hear the audio file. As the audio file started playing, they all could recognize Saren's voice immediately.

"Eden Prime will be a major victory… the beacon will bring us one step closer in finding the Conduit…" The turian spectre's voice said. But then suddenly, another voice emerged.

"…and one step closer to the return of the Reapers…." A female voice said, after which the audio-log ended. John, Anderson and Udina all were pleasantly surprised about this finding.

"That's definitely Saren's voice… I don't recognize the woman's voice, but that doesn't matter much." Udina said, stroking his chin. Anderson nodded.

"Yes, what's important is that this evidence proves Saren's guilt." The Alliance captain said. John agreed, this was the proof they needed.

"We have him now; we just need to show this to the council." He said determinately. Kaidan seemed to think about something, and spoke up.

"Wait… what are these 'reapers'? The audio-log referred to them." The young lieutenant asked Tali. The quarian girl started explaining.

"According to the memory core, the reapers were a hyper-advanced species of sentient machines that existed 50 000 years ago. The reapers were the reason the Prothean Empire vanished, they hunted the protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished into thin air… or that's what the geth believe, at least." Tali explained. Udina frowned a bit, and crossed his arms.

"A bit farfetched, I think, I don't think we can commit to anything like that yet…" The ambassador thought. Anderson nodded in agreement.

"Whatever the reapers are, they are not the main concern at the moment, John… Saren is, and finding him, and this Conduit he was talking about." The Captain explained. John nodded silently, but then suddenly realized something.

"Wait… the vision I had on Eden Prime… I understand it now. I saw the protheans being wiped out the reapers…" He said to the two humans in front of him.

"The geth revere the reapers as their gods… the pinnacle of synthetic life and evolution, and they believe that Saren is the way to their return." Tali spoke up, explaining it further. Anderson stroked his chin in his thoughts.

"Well… we need to make sure that doesn't happen, if it's true…" The old captain said. Udina nodded in agreement, and activated his omni-tool.

"I will upload that audio-log now, Miss Zorah. We'll go request another audience with the council now, Shepard, come meet us at the council chambers soon." The ambassador advised, closing off his omni-tool, and asking Anderson to come with him.

After the two had left, John turned to look at his squad, and Tali.

"What do we do now? Especially with her?" Garrus asked, looking at the quarian girl. Tali frowned frustratingly under her helmet, glancing at the turian.

"My name is Tali!" She said quickly, before turning to look at John.

"I can assure you that I can fight, Commander… let me help you stop Saren." The young quarian asked. John raised his eyebrow.

"I thought you're on your pilgrimage?" He asked. Tali nodded, but explained.

"I know, but this is much more important, than me simply proving my worth for the fleet. What could I say to myself, if I didn't offer my help to stop the most dangerous person in the galaxy? Let me help you… John." She said, looking into John's eyes. John's heart jumped to his throat, why did this quarian girl feel so familiar? After a moment, he smiled slightly, and nodded.

"I'll take whatever help I can get, Tali… welcome aboard." He said in a friendly manner, and shook Tali's hand. After that, Ashley cleared her throat, and got their attention.

"We should get to the council chamber, Commander." She said. John nodded.

"Right, let's go people." He said, signaling his squad to come with him.

**Eleven minutes later…**

The council chambers were filled with people now, many diplomats had gathered around the overlooking balconies, listening to the audio-log Tali had given Udina. John approached the audience pedestal, where Anderson was waiting for him.

"There you are, Udina is presenting the evidence now." The old captain said, starting to escort his protégé towards the human ambassador, who was presenting the to the council. John's team stayed at the end of the audience pedestal.

"Eden Prime will be a major victory… the beacon will bring us one step closer in finding the Conduit…" Saren's voice said in the audio file. The council was listening closely to the evidence.

"…and one step closer to the return of the reapers…" said the unknown woman's voice.

After that, the human ambassador frowned, as he looked at the three councilors, standing behind their pedestals.

"You wanted proof? There it is." Udina said, crossing his arms. The three council members looked at each other, Sparatus widening his eyes, and shaking his head.

"This evidence is irrefutable, ambassador… Saren will be stripped of his spectre status, and we'll make all our efforts to capture him." The turian councilor said. Councilor Tevos nodded, and then spoke up.

"I recognize the other voice, it is matriarch Benezia." She explained. John raised his eyebrow. He knew how influential asari matriarchs were in their society, but that one would've betrayed her people to ally with Saren, was beyond his comprehension.

"Asari matriarchs are highly respected advisors and diplomats on our homeworld of Thessia. Matriarch Benezia is one the most respected and influential matriarchs in our history, and she has many followers. If she has allied herself with Saren, she's bound to have many of her followers at her side as well…" The asari councilor explained. Salarian councilor Valern nodded, and spoke up.

"I'm interested in these reapers… do we know what they are?" The councilor asked, turning to look at the three humans at the audience pedestal.

"Based on the evidence we've gathered, they were an advanced species of machines that wiped out the protheans." John explained. The council glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows.

"Are you sure? Where would've these reapers gone after destroying the protheans? We've found no evidence of any such war or conflict, which caused the protheans' disappearance. This must be a false assumption." Councilor Sparatus said. John shook his head in protest.

"The geth believe the reapers to be their gods, and they believe Saren will bring them back to the galaxy, possibly by using the Conduit. The reapers destroyed the protheans 50 000 years ago, and they'll do it again, if Saren succeeds." John insisted. Councilor Tevos in turn spoke up.

"Even if what you say is true, doesn't stopping Saren remain the primary objective?" The asari asked. John was quiet for a second, and Anderson stepped in.

"Yes, councilor, but we must also consider the consequences, if the reapers truly are real. Saren is after this Conduit, we need to find it, before he does, or we'll all be in danger." Anderson explained. John nodded, and spoke up.

"You doubted me, when we accused Saren; I promise you that this is true as well…" The young commander insisted. Councilor Valern shook his head.

"This is different, Commander… you proved Saren's guilt. But the reapers seem to only be a myth." The salarian councilor said, crossing his arms. John was about to protest, but Anderson placed his hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"What will you do with Saren, now?" Anderson asked the councilors.

"We will send word to our outposts, and the fleets protecting our worlds and colonies will be put on high alert." Sparatus explained. Udina's eyes widened, and he stepped in.

"That is not good enough! Saren still threatens our colonies! Send your fleets in!" The human ambassador demanded. Valern shook his head.

"A fleet cannot track down one man, ambassador." The salarian said. Udina sighed in slight frustration.

"Ah, the Citadel fleet could secure the mass relays in Citadel space, and your other fleets could help us keep the geth attacking more of our colonies." He said. Sparatus couldn't believe the suggestion.

"That would risk a war with the Terminus Systems and the batarians, ambassador! We won't position our fleets near the border, just because there's a chance of Saren attacking again." The turian councilor said strongly. John then thought of a compromise, and spoke up.

"Wait, we don't need to send fleets after him. I can take him down myself." The commander assured. Councilor Tevos seemed to agree, and nodded.

"The Commander's right! There is one way to avoid any conflicts, and still send a force after Saren." She said, looking at councilor Sparatus, whose eyes widened, as he knew what his colleague was suggesting.

"No! It's too soon! They're not ready yet." The turian councilor protested. John raised his eyebrow, wondering if this was about his acceptance into the spectres. Udina seemed to realize it as well, and spoke up.

"It is the best choice! Shepard proved himself at Eden Prime, he's ready!" The human ambassador insisted, which made John roll his eyes; the ambassador had changed his mind pretty quickly.

After that, councilor Tevos continued to look at Sparatus, who sighed quietly, and nodded his head. The three councilors then activated something on their consoles, which stood in front of them on the pedestals. After that, councilor Tevos looked at John.

"Commander John Shepard, please step forward." The asari councilor said. John quickly turned to look at Anderson, who smiled and encouragingly nodded his head. After that, the young commander stepped forward on the pedestal, firmly standing in attention.

"It has come to the Council's agreement, that you will be granted the position of an agent in the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel Council." Councilor Tevos stated. Many people standing on the overlooking balconies started to lean on the railings, looking at what's happening.

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fires of battle and service, those whose actions elevate them above both rank, and file." Councilor Valern said, putting his arms behind him, standing straight in attention. After that, it was Sparatus' turn.

"Spectres represent the Council in all of their actions; they are above every law in the galaxy, and have the responsibility of entire nations on their shoulders." The turian councilor explained. After that, Tevos spoke up.

"The spectres are the right hand of the council, they are our first and last line of defense and to them; we trust our lives." The asari councilor stated. John stood silently in attention, not being really sure how to think of this great honor.

"You are the first human spectre, Commander; this is a huge achieved for both you and your species." Tevos said, smiling while looking at John. The young commander respectfully bowed his head to the three council members.

"I am honored, councilors." John said in awe and respect. After that, councilor Valern crossed his arms again, and spoke up.

"Your first assignment as a council spectre is to locate and bring Saren to justice. We trust this mission for you with confidence." The salarian explained. John nodded, having understood the orders.

"I'll stop him, you can count on it." The human spectre assured. Councilor Tevos nodded, and smiled.

"This meeting is adjourned." The asari declared, and after that, the three council members walked away from their pedestals.

A few moments later, John walked from the audience pedestal, coming beside Anderson and Udina. The human ambassador and captain both shook hands with the newly appointed spectre.

"Congratulations, John." Anderson said, smiling widely. John smiled back, still being a bit overwhelmed by this surprising turn of events. Udina stroked his chin in his thoughts.

"Alright, Shepard… you'll need a crew, a ship, and supplies." The human ambassador said. Anderson nodded.

"Yes, and you'll also be able to requisition unique items from the spectre armory." He explained. John nodded in understanding.

"Thank you, but I think my most urgent matter is to find Saren." The Commander said. Udina nodded.

"Yes, yes, that'll be important. Now, Shepard, me and Captain Anderson will have to look into a few things, come meet us at hangar bay, where the Normandy is docked, later; we'll have more information to you then." Udina said, to which John nodded in understatement.

After that, the two humans left the council chamber's premises. Ashley chuckled quietly.

"Wow, would've thought that the ambassador to be more thankful than that." The human sergeant noted. John shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, he is a politician, Ashley." He said, to which Ash laughed a bit, and nodded. John then looked at his team mates.

"Okay, I'll need to do a few things. I'll see you all at the spaceport lobby in an hour, before that, you're free to go about your business. Dismissed." He said. After that, most of the team nodded their heads, and left the area. Ashley and Kaidan saluted him, before they left too, walking alongside Garrus. Wrex went his own way, apparently looking around the council chambers. Tali stayed standing in front of John, which made him raise his eyebrow.

"What is it?" He asked curiously. Tali fiddled with her fingers, which again seemed so very familiar to John.

"Well… uh, I… I'm not sure where to go exactly." She said quietly. John raised his eyebrow a bit, before then smiling sweetly, and patting the girl's shoulder.

"It's okay, Tali. Here, let me upload a map on your omni-tool." He said, activating his holographic tool, sending a program to Tali's one, which she received.

"Oh… thank you, I... I hope this won't get me lost." The young girl said, stuttering a bit. John smiled, and laughed quietly.

"You're cute." He let out quietly, immediately after which he then took it back.

"Oh, I mean… I… uh… I say that to a lot girls…. Yeah…" He stuttered, scratching the back of his head. Tali giggled just a bit, blushing a bit behind her helmet.

Suddenly, John could hear a familiar voice behind him.

"Well, look who's a badass spectre now. You've outdone yourself, Johnny." A female voice said. John's eyes widened, and he quickly turned his head around, seeing a truly pleasantly surprising sight.

His sister Jane was standing a few meters behind him, smiling widely, and having her hands on her hips. Her black hair with a few red strands was wavy and reaching her shoulders, a bit shorter than the last time John had seen her. As Tali fiddled with her fingers again, looking at what was happening. John quickly ran to his sister, and embraced her, tightly keeping her in his arms.

"Jane! When did you come back to the Citadel?" John asked cheerfully, being so happy to see his sister again. Jane laughed a bit, and gently kissed her brother's cheek.

"Just yesterday, seems like you've been busy, big brother… being a spectre now, hunting Saren and stuff." She said, smiling at her brother.

"Well, you're informed well, sis." John noted, smirking a bit. Jane winked her eye at her brother.

"You know my work; it's my job to know everything." The young Alliance intel officer said. After that, Jane noticed the young quarian girl standing behind John, and her eyes widened.

"Well, is this one of your friends, John?" She asked her brother. John remembered, that Tali was still there, and quickly cleared his throat.

"Oh, right… Jane, this is Tali, one of my new crewmembers. She helped me find evidence against Saren." The commander explained, placing his hand on Tali's shoulder. Jane's eyes widened again.

"Tali? Tali'Zorah?" She asked, looking at the quarian.

Uh, yes… yes I am… Jane Shepard." Tali answered, clearly also recognizing the human female. Jane quickly glanced at John, and then looked back at Tali, and shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm glad my brother has something to keep his mind on." She said, smirking at John, who raised his eyebrow at Jane. Tali smiled behind her helmet. John then looked at his quarian companion.

"Oh, Tali… could I have a few moments with my sister? I'll see you at the spaceport lobby later, alright?" He asked, smiling friendly. Tali quickly nodded, and smiled.

"Sure, I'll see you there. See you." She said quickly, and left, clearly being a bit embarrassed.

As John looked at the quarian girl walking away, he suddenly felt a slap on the back of his head. He then turned to look at his sister, who looked at him.

"You seriously didn't recognize her, John?" Jane asked, raising her eyebrows at him in disappointment. John raised his eyebrow, being confused.

"What…?" He asked. Jane rolled her eyes.

"That's Tali! The girl we met eight years ago! She was the girl you showed Philadelphia to, the day of the accident." She explained.

Now John remembered, he remembered it all. For all these years he had wondered what really happened that day, the explosion had erased some of his memory, and only now, did he finally remember everything. He quickly turned to look at Tali again, who was almost out of his view.

"She…. She was the girl?" He asked quietly. Jane nodded, and crossed her arms. John opened his mouth a bit.

"My goodness… she's even more beautiful than I remembered…" John said. Jane chuckled, and tugged her brother's sleeve.

"That's the John I know, always after the pretty girls." She said, walking past her brother. John smirked a bit, and followed his sister.

"Well, better than to be after ugly girls, eh?" The commander said. Jane rolled her eyes.

"Sure, whatever you say, sweetie." She said, walking beside her brother towards the elevator John had arrived on earlier.

**20 minutes later…**

The Shepard siblings walked beside each other on a walkway in the presidium. They had talked about many things, not having been together for months. As they walked past a small café, John looked at his sister, smiling.

"So… how are things with you and Kaidan?" He asked in curiosity. Jane and Kaidan had been dating for a while now, and as a caring brother, John wanted to know how things were.

"Well, thanks to you, we barely see each other." Jane answered, looking at her brother, and smirking. John laughed a bit.

"Sorry, honey…" He said, still smiling a bit. Jane giggled, and touched her brother's arm.

"Well, at least you could make him not be as awkward on dates… he still acts like it's our first date every time." Jane explained. John laughed a bit louder now.

"You're kidding! He can't be as awkward still, can he?" He asked. Jane nodded, and joined her brother's laugh.

"Kaidan might be the king of awkwardness… it's a wonder we ended up together." She said. John chuckled, and looked around.

"Well, as long as he's good for you, sis." He said. Jane smiled, and took her brother's hand.

"Thanks, brother… I love you." She said quietly. John smiled, and squeezed Jane's hand.

"I love you too, Jane." He answered, and continued walking the pathway.

Suddenly, a man walking past them, bumped into John, which made him stagger a bit. After that, the man started running, and John realized, that the thief had stolen his credit card holder from his belt.

"Hey!" John yelled, as he started running after the thief.

Out of the blue, a bolt of electricity hit the man, and made him twitch and grunt in pain. The man fell on the ground, twitching around and trying to move. John stopped, raising his eyebrow. Who had done that?

After a moment, out of thin air, a hooded woman appeared, a tactical cloak deactivating, and revealing her. The woman wore a skintight leather suit, with a hood covering her head and most of her face. The mysterious woman walked to the thief, who still lied on the ground.

"You know, I once knew a guy in Kyoto, who could steal every bit of credits from you just by smiling at you. But you? You don't have the style or status to work at the presidium, let alone at the Citadel." The woman said, grabbing the credit card holder from the man's hand. John and Jane both raised their eyebrows, looking at the mysterious woman.

"You might want to consider a new job for yourself, pal." The woman said, before suddenly stomping his face with her high heeled black boots. The man was knocked unconscious.

After that, the hooded woman walked towards John and Jane, smiling a bit. Her eyes were barely visible, and she wore a small batch of purple lipstick on her lips. She truly was an extraordinary sight, John thought. As she walked in front of the commander, the woman handed the holder to him.

"How do you do? Phantom Menace, at your service." The woman said, smirking a bit. John put the holder on his belt again, raising his eyebrows.

"Phantom Menace? You're a Star Wars fan, or something?" He asked, being a bit confused. The woman laughed a bit, and shook her head.

"Nah, although I won't bash the movie. It's the name the cops back on Earth gave me." The woman explained, holding her hand on her hips. John nodded.

"Okay…" He answered, still being a bit confused. Jane rolled her eyes a bit, and then looked at the woman.

"You're an unusual sight at the Citadel… I'd expect the galaxy's most notorious thief to lay lower." She said, looking at the woman. John raised his eyebrows again.

"She's a thief?" He asked, glancing at his sister. The woman laughed.

"Well, they call me the best thief in the galaxy, so I guess so." She explained, smirking a bit. Jane nodded.

"Well, I won't report you, since you helped my brother, miss." The young Alliance officer said. The woman smirked and winked her eye at Jane.

"Thanks, just doing my good deed for the day." She said. Before John could speak again, the woman walked past him, stopping at his side, and subtly moving her mouth just beside his ear.

"I've got to run, but I must say, John Shepard… you're one hot piece of work." The woman whispered, and gently slapped John's buttocks. John raised his eyebrows yet again, turning around.

"Wait… how did you..?" He asked, as he turned around, but noticed that the woman had disappeared again.

…**..**

Several moments later, John and Jane arrived at the spaceport lobby, seeing the elevator, which would take them up to the hangar, where the Normandy was docked at.

As they walked towards the lift, John noticed Tali standing near it, being talked to by two C-Sec officers. Smelling trouble, John made his way towards them, Jane following him.

"What are you doing here, lollygagging around?" The other police officer asked, looking suspiciously at the quarian. Tali fiddled with her fingers, being nervous.

"Uh… I'm waiting for someone, my employer…" She explained. The other officer laughed, shaking his head.

"Sure… a quarian with a job on the Citadel, you've got to be kidding me. You're just here looking to rob someone, aren't you?" The officer accused. Tali's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"What? No… no, definitely not." She said, but to no avail. The other officer grabbed the young quarians arm.

"We'll take you down to the precinct in the suspicion of robbery." The officer declared. Tali seemed scared.

"What? No…" She tried to protest.

Suddenly, John walked behind the officer holding Tali's arm, and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, dipshit." The commander said. The C-Sec officers turned around, and raised their eyebrows.

"What do you want, asswipe? This is official C-Sec business, stay back." The officer said. John shook his head.

"You're harassing my crewmember, and I'm putting an end to it." He said determinately. The officers laughed a bit.

"Oh yeah? You want us to take you in too?" The other officer asked, fiddling with handcuffs in his hands. John smirked and crossed his arms.

"You think you can take in a newly appointed Council Spectre?" He asked, looking at the officers. The two human police officers' eyes widened.

"What…? You…? You're the new human spectre?" The other officer asked, being baffled. John nodded his head. Both of the officers then quickly saluted him.

"We apologize, Commander Shepard." The other officer said. John nodded.

"Sure, now can you please leave?" He asked the two. The two officers quickly nodded, and walked away. After that, John placed his hand on Tali's shoulder, smiling comfortingly.

"You okay?" He asked the girl. Tali nodded quietly.

"Yes… yes… thank you." She said, looking in to John's eyes. John smiled, and let go of Tali's shoulder.

"Good. Now, let's go to the Normandy, I'm sure you'll find her interesting." He said, smiling sweetly. Tali nodded quietly, and smiled behind her mask.

After that, the three made their way to the elevator, which took them up to the hangarbay.

…**..**

After a couple of minutes, the elevator arrived at the hangar, its door sliding down, and letting the trio exit it. As they walked out, John could see Ashley and Kaidan standing beside the airlock tunnel leading to the ship, talking with Garrus. Wrex was leaning on a railing a distance away, looking at the ship. Anderson and Udina stood at the other side of the airlock, waiting for John to come talk to them. Both Jane and Tali gasped, as they saw the magnificent piece of engineering that was the SSV Normandy.

"Wow, brother! I had no idea the Normandy was so… elegant." Jane said, looking at the ship. John smirked a bit, being proud to be the ship's XO. Tali also looked at it with large eyes.

"It looks so marvelous! I've never seen a ship like that." The young quarian said in awe, walking to a railing to admire the Normandy. John walked to Anderson and Udina, who were waiting for him. Jane quickly walked to Kaidan, and gave him a quick, but a gentle kiss on the lips, before walking to John again.

"I've got big news for you, Shepard; Captain Anderson is stepping down as the commanding officer of the Normandy, the ship is yours now." Udina declared, looking at John. The young commander raised his eyebrows, and looked at Anderson, who nodded.

"She's fast, and quiet, and you know the crew; a perfect ship for a spectre." The old captain said, smiling at his protégé. John shook his head a bit.

"This… feels wrong. Why are you stepping down, Anderson?" He asked. Anderson sighed quietly.

"Truth is, John… I'm too old to be at the front lines… they're yours now. I know you're the best damn soldier in the whole Alliance military, and you're now a spectre… nothing should stand in your way, as you save the galaxy from Saren… not even me being the commanding officer of the Normandy." Anderson explained. John didn't like it, but it did make sense.

"You need every advantage you can get, Shepard… trust me, the Normandy will suit you more than well in your mission." The ambassador assured. John nodded in agreement. Anderson then cleared his throat and spoke up.

"We've received word from the colony of Zhu's Hope, on the planet Feros; they've been attacked by the geth fleet." The captain stated. John stroked his short stubble.

"You think Saren would be there?" He asked the captain, who shrugged his shoulders.

"Unknown, John… but it's a good lead to start from." Anderson said. Udina opened his mouth then.

"We've also heard that the asari matriarch Benezia has a daughter, an expert on the protheans. Her name is Liara, Dr. Liara T'Soni. We don't know her location yet, but we're searching. Lieutenant Shepard here will monitor the findings." Udina said, pointing at Jane, who nodded.

"I'll keep you informed, Johnny." She said. John nodded, and looked at the human ambassador, who wasn't done.

"Also, remember that you're still part of the Alliance, Commander… the things you do can affect us in a bad way, even if it's for the good of the council." Udina said. John nodded.

"I won't make things worse for you, ambassador." The commander assured. Udina nodded in relief, and then looked at Jane.

"Well, Lieutenant, we'll need to go look into these findings. Commander, Captain Anderson here will answer any questions you might have. Good day." Udina said, signaling Jane to follow him. Jane quickly gave a kiss on John's cheek, and then left with Udina. Wrex walked right past Udina, looking at the ambassador.

"Boo…" The krogan said in his low voice, which made Udina raise his eyebrow, and back off a bit. Jane chuckled at that a bit, continuing to walk alongside Udina towards the elevator.

After that, John turned to Anderson again.

"You gonna be alright?" John asked his former guardian. Anderson smiled, patting John's shoulder.

"I will, John. Now, go show Saren how we roll." The captain said, winking his eye. John smiled, and shook Anderson's hand.

"You can count on it." He assured, being full of determination and confidence.

**15 minutes later…**

John walked on the bridge of the Normandy, wearing his casual Alliance uniform. He walked behind Joker, who was making the pre-flight preparations.

"I heard about Captain Anderson… man, he survived countless battles, and now he was taken down by backroom politics…" The pilot remarked, checking holographic windows on the dashboard. John nodded.

"I agree… but I believe this is for the best in the end, Joker… we'll stop Saren, you can count on it." He said to the pilot, who nodded.

"Hell yeah, Commander… and you can count on us, we're all behind you, a hundred percent." Joker assured. John smiled and patted Joker's shoulder.

"Thanks, Joker." He said, smiling. Joker nodded, and smirked.

"Hey, they call me the shrink, Commander." The pilot said, smirking. John rolled his eyes.

"Bullshit, Joker." He said, laughing quietly. Joker laughed a bit too.

"You know me too well, Shepard…" The pilot said.

After a moment, Joker pressed a couple of buttons, and got John's attention.

"The intercom is open, John. Wanna say a couple inspirational lines to the crew?" The pilot asked. John nodded, and bended towards the microphone, and began to speak.

"This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders; stop Saren, and bring him to justice before he reaches the Conduit." He started. The crew all around the frigate started listening to their commanding officer. Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus and Wrex stood in the CIC, and listened to the broadcast.

"This began with an attack on Eden Prime, but it won't end there… Saren will destroy everything in his way to the Conduit, and we need to stop him." John continued. Tali walked along one of the hallways of the ship, stopping to listen to the broadcast coming through the intercom.

"Wherever Saren goes, we'll follow him! Wherever he tries to hide, we'll be there waiting for him! We will chase him to the ends of the galaxy, and we will not stop, until he's brought to justice!" John declared determinately. The crewmembers looked at each other, nodding in approval, getting more and more inspired.

"This will be the most important mission any of us have ever been on, but we will succeed, we will prevail! We will find Saren, and put an end to this geth incursion!" The commander finished strongly, closing the intercom. Joker looked at John.

"Nicely spoken, Commander. We're with you." The pilot assured. John nodded, and started walking away from the bridge, being full of confidence.

"Anderson gave up everything, so I could get this chance, we won't fail!" He said determinately. Joker smirked, and nodded.

"Yes sir!" He answered with confidence.

After that, the large engines of the frigate sprung to life. The docking clamps detached themselves from the ship, and the Normandy backed away from the hangar, turning around, and shooting its powerful engines, pushing itself forwards.

On an overlooking balcony near the hangar, a dark brown haired, blue eyed woman looked upon the ship leaving. Two armed men stood behind her, wearing black and yellow armors, with unique insignias embedded in them. The woman, wearing a black and yellow leather suit, activated her omni-tool, and spoke into it.

"The Normandy has left the Citadel; Operation Observer is in motion." The woman said in her omni-tool.

…**..**

On the small terrestrial human colony of Intai'sei, two batarian men were on their knees, their hands bound in handcuffs behind their backs. In front of them, a middle aged human man, smoking a cigarette, kept an eye on them.

The man, clad in dark grey armor, puffed on his cigarette, and threw it on the ground. The man had large scars on his face, his right eye pale in color, due to blindness. The man looked over his bounty, keeping his assault rifle in his grip.

"You two bastards came a long way from batarian space…" The man said, looking at the batarian prisoners. The two men didn't say a word. The human merc chuckled a bit.

"I would've given you some smokes, but I only have two left, and I definitely ain't giving those to some four eyed criminals…" He stated, smirking a bit.

Suddenly a Kodiak shuttle approached the empty site, where the man had his prisoners. The shuttle was painted in white, having yellow markings and logos in it. The man didn't recognize the logos, but assumed it to be his employer's, from who he had no knowledge of whatsoever. The shuttle landed a couple of meters away from them, its door sliding open almost immediately.

Five armored men exited the shuttle, wearing strange looking combat armors, being colored in white and yellow, having the same logos in them as well. The soldier leading the four men stopped right in front of the merc.

"You must be Zaeed Massani." The man said, his face being masked by his helmet. The human merc raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, and who the fuck are you people?" The Australian born man asked. The mysterious soldier reached down to one of his pockets, and took a bag of credit chips out of it, handing it to Zaeed.

"That detail is irrelevant at this time…" The man said, giving Zaeed the bag of money, and then signaling two of his men to take the batarian prisoners into the shuttle.

"We appreciate your efforts in capturing these two men… they are highly wanted individuals." The man continued. Zaeed nodded, putting the bag into his pocket.

"Yeah, they're apparently working for some bloke named Saren… a spectre or something." He said. The soldier nodded.

"Correct, Mr. Massani… but apparently the council has dispatched their agents against him." The man said. Zaeed chuckled a bit.

"I heard that they made a human a spectre, and sent him after Saren… a commander in the Alliance, apparently." The grumpy man said, taking a cigarette from his pocket, and lighting it up.

"Really, now?" The soldier asked, waiting for his men to complete the insertion of the prisoners into the shuttle.

"Yeah, some bloke named Shepard… John Shepard, I think. I hear he's some sort of war hero…" Zaeed explained, puffing some smoke in his lungs. The soldier seemed to get startled by that name, and he looked at Zaeed.

"John Shepard?" The man asked. Zaeed nodded, blowing out smoke.

"Yeah, like I said, some war hero…" The mercenary answered.

After that, the soldier turned around, seeing that his men had put the batarians in the shuttle. The man turned back to Zaeed for a second still.

"Well, we need to leave now. Cerberus appreciates your hard work, Mr. Massani." The man said, turning around again, and heading to the shuttle with his men. Zaeed raised his eyebrows, he had never heard of such organization as 'Cerberus'.

After the soldiers entered the shuttle, its doors closed, and the engines sprung to life. In the next moments, the shuttle rose up in the air, firing up its engines, and flying away from the area. Zaeed was left standing in the large empty area, continuing to smoke his cigarette.

****Okay, here's the next part!**

**I hope you like this one; I had a blast writing it. **

**I hope you liked the little cameos I gave both Kasumi and Zaeed, and one certain character from ME2 as well, if you can recognize her. **

**Please go ahead and also speculate who that soldier in the end was, I'm sure you'll be surprised to find out later in the story.**

**Keep writing those reviews, I appreciate every single one of them, and hope you'll continue writing them.**

**Anyway, have a good time, next chapter will come soon!** **


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